Pakistan planning ministry lacks capacity to manage CPEC: Report

Islamabad [Pakistan], March 21 (ANI): The Pakistan planning, development and special initiatives ministry does not have the capacity to coordinate and manage projects like China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Senate Special Committee on CPEC informed the upper house of parliament.
According to The Express Tribune, the committee stated in a report that the ministry clearly lacks vision and critical thinking as an institution, adding that several lapses in the project due to mismanagement and lack of strategic planning were pointed out in the last two-and-a-half years.
"The ministry did not have the capacity to coordinate and manage a huge project like CPEC," Committee Convener Senator Sherry Rehman stated in the report submitted before the house in the session held before the elections of chairman and deputy chairman Senate.
"From the outset, the committee observed that the ministry was facing issues which needed an immediate response and that it clearly lacked a vision and critical thinking as an institution," the convener stated in her message attached to the report.
Rehman informed the house that the committee also viewed that "departments were shifting responsibility to one another and that they lacked institutional collaboration".
After reviewing the performance and progress of the planning ministry and its various allied departments, the committee has reached the conclusion that they were "unable to formulate a clear strategy and harmonise their efforts with all stakeholders to communicate clearly to the public," The Express Tribune reported.
In 2015, China announced an economic project in Pakistan worth USD 46 billion. With the CPEC, Beijing aims to expand its influence in Pakistan and across Central and South Asia in order to counter the influence of the United States and India.
The CPEC would link Pakistan's southern Gwadar port (626 kilometres west of Karachi) in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea to China's western Xinjiang region. It also includes plans to create road, rail, and oil pipeline links to improve connectivity between China and the Middle East. (ANI)