Less than 20% current CPEC projects using Chinese loans: Spokesperson

April 9, 2019: China says less than 20 per cent of current projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor are using the Chinese loans and more than 80 percent of them are directly invested by China or using Chinese grants.

A Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson Lu Kang during his regular briefing in Beijing today rejected impression that Chinese loans are adding to Pakistan’s debt problems.

He said that carrying out major projects with the international financing is a global practice and it is also an effective approach for the developing countries to break the financial bottleneck and expedite their economic growth.

The spokesperson said that the projects being completed under the CPEC, a flagship project of Belt and Road Initiative do not add burden to Pakistan’s debt issue rather it strengthened the economy.

Explaining further, he said there are 22 early harvest projects creating tens of thousands of local jobs and satisfying electricity needs of 8.6 million households.

Lu Kang said the CPEC has greatly improved Pakistan’s infrastructure and power supply.

According to analysts, in the past five years, 11 projects have been completed under the CPEC, and 11 are in the construction stage.

The total investment of these 22 projects was about 18.9 billion dollars.