I am not quiet clear for that either. CPEC construction need lots of trucks, but that is now, not some years later when the proposed plant begin to produce, it would be too late. Pakistan itself is not a big country in terms of geography. So the domestic market for trucks after the major infrastructure work of CPEC is done is not very big.
One thing special about MAN's mother company VW is that, it moves extremely fast, early and long term looking. It is the first western company to set up joint venture in China. It's car VW and Audi have been dominant in China ever since, and are still highly regarded after Mercedes, BMW, Buick, Ford etc. moved in. It is just natural for VW to take on a good position early on for the next couple of decades to come.
The only possible reason is lower production cost which also attracts other car manufactures like Chinese in a separate post. That is to say, MAN and other vehicle investors are aiming to use Pakistan as a manufacturing base for further export.
The one thing special there is that, CPEC has dedicated industrial zones probably modeled after numerous such zones in China where investors are exempted from taxes. This makes CPEC and Pakistan standing out of the region. For comparison, India has heavy domestic protections, Central Asians run business more like the Soviet/Russian, while CPEC is run closer to the state-capitalist in China.
I believe Pakistan consciously pursuit Gwadar (port and industrial parks) to be another Shenzhen.
... they can request it .. but the final say would have come from China who have the $$, expertise and political power.
