KARACHI: Minister for Planning, Development, and Reforms Asad Umar has said the assertion of US Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells regarding CPEC-related loans is not based on facts.
The federal minister, while addressing media, said that Pakistan will not be caught up in a fight between two other countries, but will not back out of its friendship with China.
“A lot of conspiracies have taken place against CPEC,” he said, adding the first phase of CPEC focused on road infrastructure and energy related projects. He said that Pakistan was ‘going from roads to industries’ in the CPEC project.
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The minister acknowledged that foreign debt of the country has reached to a level that is impeding the growth of economy. He said the loans were taken in the past as imports exceeded exports and trade deficit was increasing. He added that economic growth will improve with the paying of loans.
He said total public debt of the country stands at $74 billion. The debt from China is $18 billion, less than one fourth. He said CPEC-related debt out of $18 billion is $4.9 billion, adding that CPEC loan is seven percent of the total external debt.
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Asad Umar said three-fourth of the debt is from other countries or multilateral institutions. He said Chinese institutions funded Pakistan at a difficult economic time due to deep friendship bonds between the two countries.
The minister expressed satisfaction that commercial bilateral debt with China will start reducing at a faster pace in the coming years and will be replaced by multilateral debt. He said the public debt taken from China has a maturity of 20 years with average interest rate of 2.34 percent.
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