China buys nearly $2.6trn of foreign goods each year, yet Pakistan’s sales to its closest ally hover around a paltry $3bn. That disparity sits at the heart of Islamabad’s renewed courtship of Beijing. Ahsan Iqbal, the minister for planning, development and special initiatives, argues that the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, known as CPEC 2.0, must now do for trade what its predecessor did for electricity. “China helped Pakistan overcome its energy deficit under CPEC 1.0,” he said, “and now we hope CPEC 2.0 will help us overcome our export deficit.”
The remarks came on Tuesday during talks with a high-level Chinese delegation led by Sun Dongsheng, a senior adviser at Economic Affairs Press. The meeting centred on business-to-business (B2B) and industrial co-operation. Mr Iqbal identified the country’s narrow export base as one of its gravest economic weaknesses, observing that feeble overseas sales had repeatedly cut short periods of rapid growth. Turning productive sectors into competitive earners of foreign exchange, he said, was the government’s foremost priority.
Officials framed the new phase as a deliberate pivot: from infrastructure to industrialisation, from connectivity to competitiveness and from investment to productivity. It also envisages a move away from government-to-government dealings towards deeper partnerships between firms. Mr Iqbal noted that Pakistani and Chinese enterprises had recently signed regional agreements in industry, agriculture and mining, and pressed for easier access for Pakistani products to Chinese markets.
The minister briefed his guests on Uraan Pakistan, the government’s national economic transformation agenda, and sought closer ties with Chinese bodies, including counterparts at the National Centre of New Manufacturing, to draw on China’s expertise in innovation, automation and robotics ahead of Industry 4.0 and 5.0. Both sides discussed how the five corridors of CPEC 2.0 align with the Uraan Pakistan “5Es” framework, and stressed that this fit must yield concrete results in enterprise development, technology, jobs, skills, exports and investment.
Mr Sun, for his part, reaffirmed the longstanding friendship between the two countries and spoke favourably of the first phase. He called for deeper collaboration in industry and agriculture, stronger productive capacity, greater involvement of small and medium-sized manufacturers and more exchanges between enterprises. The delegation was also briefed on priorities spanning industrial co-operation, farming, science and technology, information technology, mining and minerals, and the development of Gwadar.
Ambition, however, has a habit of outrunning delivery. On Wednesday Mr Iqbal chaired the 91st meeting of the CPEC Projects Review and National Steering Committee and directed all ministries to speed up work on the five corridors: Growth, Livelihood, Innovation, Green Development and Regional Connectivity. The session reviewed progress in infrastructure, power, petroleum, water, food and agriculture, special economic zones and preparations for upcoming Joint Working Group meetings and the 15th Joint Cooperation Committee meeting.
The sharpest words were reserved for the Karachi Coastal Comprehensive Development Zone, on which the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Sindh government provided updates. Voicing concern over slippage, the minister gave stakeholders a week to submit their observations and resolve outstanding issues. Memorandums of understanding, he insisted, must be honoured on agreed terms rather than left to gather dust. Sindh’s government, the maritime ministry and the Board of Investment were told to meet the Chinese company involved to settle technical hitches.
Human capital drew scrutiny too. Reviewing a scheme to train 1,000 agriculture graduates in China, Mr Iqbal demanded a plan, by the next meeting, setting out their specialisations, deployment and future roles. He wants training geared towards biotechnology, seed development, high-yield crops, digital extension services, AI-driven farming and co-operative farm management, and asked officials to draft a five-year roadmap linking future programmes to the sector’s real needs.
Advocates of a greener corridor see a further opportunity. They point to Pakistan’s Climate Prosperity Plan (CPP), issued by the Ministry of Finance and prepared by the Climate Vulnerable Forum and V20, which offers bankable projects in areas such as energy transition, green economic zones, electric vehicles, climate-resilient agriculture and nature-based solutions. Of these, 34 concern mitigation, 15 adaptation and 20 resilience, with projected average returns of 31-34%, an economic rate of return of 22.24% and a payback period of 4.8-5.2 years.
The snag, proponents concede, is obscurity: the plan barely features in public debate and businesses know little of it. They urge a communication strategy, sharing the plan with Chinese partners and investors, a joint committee of the finance and planning ministries, and marketing events in both countries. Whether through green projects or export factories, the test for CPEC 2.0 is the same one Mr Iqbal set his officials this week: agreements must become output, not paperwork.