China's overland Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road Thread
- Thread starter SampanViking
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: 392 km - Motorway M-5 under Construction completion 2018
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China’s Alibaba Group signs first MoU to enter Pakistani market
Pakistan on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Alibaba Group Holdings Limited to promote country's worldwide exports by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through e-commerce.
The agreement between Alibaba and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) was signed by Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir and Michael Evans, President of Alibaba Group, and Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of Global Business of Ant Financial, on behalf of Alibaba, during the visit of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to the headquarters of the company.
Alibaba Group's Executive Chairman, Jack Ma and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif witnessed the signing ceremony.
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Under the terms of the MoU, Alibaba, Ant Financial, and TDAP agreed to foster growth of worldwide exports of products by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan through e-commerce.
Online and offline training programs for the SMEs would also be conducted by Alibaba in a bid to assist SMEs with on-boarding on to Alibaba's platforms and optimizing exports through e-commerce.
TDAP will help identify suitable SMEs to participate in the training programs while Alibaba will be responsible for providing industry analysis to TDAP to assist them in their selection process.
In addition, Alibaba, Ant Financial and TDAP have agreed to promote the growth of financial services in Pakistan in areas such as mobile and online payment services.
The parties have also agreed to adopt cloud computing services to support the online and mobile e-commerce businesses of SMEs in Pakistan.
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Japan wants Pakistan to open CPEC for other countries
Japan, Pakistan’s decades’ old business partner, believes that Pakistan should open China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for countries willing to be the part of the mega plan.
“At the moment, only Chinese and Pakistani companies can undertake projects in CPEC, if these restrictions are removed many private businesses in Japan may be interested in investing,” Toshikazu Isomura, consul general of Japan in Karachi, said in an interaction with newsmen recently. He said Japan is Pakistan’s partner since long and 82 Japanese companies were already operating in Pakistan.
“Japanese companies have invested over $500 million in the country in last three years,” Isomura said in a briefing regarding State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Nobuo Kishi’s recent visit to Karachi.
The Japanese consul general said their state minister had meetings with Prime Minister and other functionaries and discussed issues of bilateral interest. Easing of tariff barriers on import of Pakistan’s textile and leather products in Japan was also discussed.
Talking about CEPC, Isomura said, “The project is good for Pakistan and good for the region. Pakistan should open it for its old business partners.”
Japan accepting China as the economic centre of the World?
Some weeks ago I heard on my favourite radio station the Dutch logistics manager for Hewlett-Packard in Chongqing. He decided some six years ago that the notebook computer being built there were too expensive to be transported to Europe by river and sea but too cheap to go by air. So he sent them from one big river port to another even bigger river port, Duisburg, by rail. This was the first branch of the iron silk road according to this article in Asia Times:
Equation
Lieutenant General
The US mainstream media finally catch hold of China's Belt & Road Initiative success at attracting a large world leaders and representatives that are interested and they seems to act surprise? Didn't they know China's been planing this like awhile back? 
It's AIIB 2.0 when the US tries to dictate the world NOT to join but the world did the opposite.
It's AIIB 2.0 when the US tries to dictate the world NOT to join but the world did the opposite.How China is upstaging America
Rick Newman Mon, May 15 12:55 PM PDT
Can you think of a grand American plan to build something momentous, similar to the interstate highway system or the NASA moonshot?
Don’t think too hard, because there is no such plan at the moment.
There is in China, however.
China just concluded a , a huge plan to improve the physical and digital infrastructure between China and its trading partners, or build new infrastructure if there isn’t any. Representatives of more than 100 countries, including 28 heads of state, showed up to demonstrate their enthusiasm for participating in the world’s biggest construction project.
China excels at spectacle, and the Belt & Road Forum was as much PR stunt as anything. But the vast scale of the plan and the national ambition behind it dwarfs anything leaders are contemplating in Washington, or European capitals. “If you compare this to what the United States is doing—trying to rescue the steel and aluminum sectors and open a few markets for its goods—we’re pretty small potatoes,” says Scott Kennedy, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “China is more organized and they’re planning more strategically than the United States.”
Cranes at the site of a new airport terminal near Beijing. Source: Reuters
China’s plan is to strengthen its overland trade routes through central Asia to Europe, and its maritime trade routes to other Asian nations, Africa, and the rest of the world via the Suez Canal. China pledges to invest in other countries willing to improve their roads, railways, ports, pipelines and communications in ways that improve trade with China. While spending is hard to track, China has probably so far, with the tally possibly exceeding $1 trillion eventually, if Beijing keeps its word and partner countries chip in.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
Western analysts view the Belt & Road Initiative, or BRI, as China’s way of ”—the ability to influence other nations without force or coercion. If even moderately successful, BRI could speed the flow of goods to and from China, and increase the volume of trade. As other countries become more dependent on Chinese trade, China’s influence will grow at institutions such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, along with, perhaps, its ability to get its way in .
There’s political motivation for Chinese President Xi Jinping to promote the plan. Xi is as a global leader ahead of a big gathering of the Chinese Communist Party this fall, at which a number of senior party leaders will be determined. To consolidate power, Xi wants a string of visible wins demonstrating his high standing among the world’s potentates. That’s why Xi stood out at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, defending globalization while western leaders fretted about waves of populism roiling their nations. Xi’s chummy visit with President Donald Trump in March was another tableau depicting his easy way with world heavies.
There’s a lot that could go wrong with the BRI. Some analysts suspects it’s a scheme for China to unload excess inventories of building materials such as cement, steel and aluminum, which pile up in part because state-subsidized Chinese manufacturers produce more than justified by market demand. If projects meant to be profitable and generate a return on investment go bust instead, it could add to what’s already an excessive amount of bad debt in China. Plus, construction projects in nations with weak or corrupt governments, like those in central Asia, are often plagued by theft and mismanagement. China is just as capable of funding “” as the US Congress.
But China will likely reap some rewards from the BRI, at a time when President Trump is reeling America in with his “America first” policies, threats of protectionism and hostile remarks toward neighbors such as Mexico. “Even if China only achieves 10% of what it plans, it’s a big deal,” Kennedy says. “The US has no similar initiatives and is highly chaotic and disorganized.”
Trump does plan to launch his own infrastructure program, with up to $1 trillion in private and government funding for new projects. But that is in line behind contentious legislation on and , and might never materialize. And some analysts worry that Trump’s entire agenda could be jeopardized by his recent , the investigation into his ties with Russia, and other controversies.
Trump’s biggest construction priority is his border wall with Mexico, which still lacks funding and is . If Trump does get his wall someday, it could generate a few thousand temporary jobs and a bit of increased demand for steel and concrete. But it’s not the kind of project that will boost trade or add permanently to economic growth. The Chinese seemed to recognize the limits of walls a long time ago.
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- Pakistan, s Longest Ratodero - Motorway M-8, 892 km under construction in Wango Hill Retaining Wall
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- Another early harvest milestone achieved by connecting first unit of Coal power plant to national grid providing 660 MW. And the first unit of 629 MW to be inaugurated on 20th May.
