Islamabad
Planning Commission data has revealed that CPEC benefitted and boosted the construction sector helping create thousands of indirect jobs. This has indeed been confirmed by a recent Bloomberg report which stated that a $9.6b expansion of the national roads network like the Karakoram Highway and the $35b investment in power projects has fueled the use of cement and led to a construction boom under CPEC. Karakoram Highway Phase-II Havelian project helped in creating 2,071 for the locals there.
It has been learn’t that 30,000 Pakistani engineers and workers have got direct employment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s early harvest projects. It has disclosed that the Sahiwal Coal Power Plant and Zonergy Solar Power Project have provided employment opportunities to 3,000 Pakistani’s in that area. It stands at second position.
The Port Qasim Coal power project has provided employment opportunities to 8.000 Pakistani’s putting it at number one position. From a total of 38,000 jobs under the early harvest projects of CPEC, approximately 25pc were taken up by Chinese workers. 16,000 Pakistani workers including engineers and labourers have been hired as a direct consequence of CPEC. Two more projects under CPEC, Sukki Kinari and Karot is expected to create employment opportunities for 6,000 Pakistani engineers and workers.
Under CPEC, most of the jobs have been taken up by the energy sector and at second stands the transportation stratum which has provided 13,000 jobs to Pakistani’s. 9,800 local are employed in the Multan-Sukkur section of the Peshawar-Karachi motorway which is the largest infrastructural project under CPEC. The Gwadar free-zone has created indirect employment opportunities for 2000 people and over 400 direct jobs. With the initiation of the Gwadar Airport, ML-I project of Pakistan Railways and Gwadar expressway, it is expected that the number of employment opportunities are expected to further multiply.
