Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa details the role of CPEC Authority in recent interview

In an interview with Global Village Space, Chairman of the CPEC Authority Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, shared his insights on why there was a need for a formalised authority for the CPEC initiative, stating that "CPEC's scope is now expanding, and there is so much more to do, with all the provinces and federating units, therefore I think the government needed one window of operation”, adding that “what has happened as a result of this establishment is that every Chinese company, every official of the embassy, who comes in for any project which is part of CPEC [...] we get things done in an expeditious way”.

When asked about the formal mandate of the CPEC Authority, whether it dealt with day-to-day decision making or strategic planning, Gen. Bajwa stated that “The emphasis is more in the implementation of projects, but we also do planning, evaluation of the projects and monitoring”, adding that “whatever we plan for CPEC is in consonance with the overall master planning of the country, which is done by the Planning Commission of Pakistan”.

When inquired about the major accomplishments of CPEC, Gen. Bajwa stated that “When CPEC was started, it was meant to fill the voids in our energy and communications infrastructure”, adding that “we are now going into a smarter model of public-private partnership”. In terms of investment coming into the country, Gen. Bajwa mentioned that $8 billion worth of projects have already been commissioned in the energy sector, with an additional $9.5 billion underway, and in terms of infrastructure $4 billion worth of projects have already been executed, while an additional $3 billion worth of projects coming to fruition.