The CPEC is a 3,000-kilometer network of roads, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas from Gwadar Port to Kashgar city, northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
Proposed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during his visit to Pakistan in May 2013, the CPEC will act as a bridge for the new Maritime Silk Route that envisages linking three billion people in Asia, Africa and Europe.
An official agreement on the corridor was signed between the two countries in May 2015 during President Xi Jinping’s historic visit to Pakistan.
A flagship project of the Belt and Road initiative as well, the CPEC intends to revive the ancient Silk Road with a focus on infrastructure, and constitutes the strategic framework of bilateral cooperation.
The project links China’s strategy to develop its western region with Pakistan’s focus on boosting its economy, including the infrastructure construction of Gwadar Port, together with some energy cooperation and investment programs.
It also involves road and railway construction including an upgrade of the 1,300-km Karakoram Highway, the highest paved international road in the world which connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram Mountains.
The CPEC will reduce China’s routes of oil and gas imports from Africa and the Middle East by thousands of kilometers, making Gwadar a potentially vital link in China’s supply chain.
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor is the single largest investment in Pakistan that will trigger growth, economic activity and an even more important place in the world map as an important and influential member of the community of Nations.
Under CPEC, China and Pakistan has launched a plan for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan worth $46 billion, linking their economies and peoples in Asia and beyond.
Economic corridor is not only a road to economic prosperity of Pakistan; it can be termed as future of the world. It is estimated that about 3 billion people from China, South Asia and Central Asia, would be benefited from the economic corridor.
Islamabad and Beijing have decided that they will speed up the process of finalising a framework agreement for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The CPEC can prove a game changer not only for China and Pakistan but also for the whole world.
PM inaugurates western route of CPEC in Zhob
 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the western route of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Balochistan’s Zhob on 30 December 2015 and laid the foundation stones of two key projects: upgradation of the Zhob-Mughal Kot section of the Dera Ismail Khan-Qila Saifullah Highway (N-50) and the Qilla Saifullah-Waigam Rud Road section of the Multan-Dera Ghazi Khan-Qilla Saifullah Highway (N-70)
 The Zhob-Mughal Kot Section is part of the western route of the CPEC which starts from Burhan on the Peshawar-Islamabad motorway (M-1), and after moving through DI Khan, Zhob, Quetta, Surab and Hoshab, ends at Gwadar.
The Zhob-Mughal Kot section is 81 kilometres (km) long and its up gradation will cost Rs9 billion, and is expected to be completed by 2018. The Qilla Saifullah-Waigam Rud section is 128km long and will cost around Rs 8bn.
The ceremony was attended by key party representatives and government officials, including JUI-F chief Maulana Fazal ur Rehman, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) Mushahid Hussain Syed, ANP Central General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain Shah, National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen (retd) Janjua, Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Federal Minister for Textile and Industries Abbas Khan Afridi, and Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo.
