The signs in the lobby of the Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore could hardly be more gushing. “Long live Pak-China Friendship,” they read, advertising a conference to promote the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The banners add: “Our friendship is higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the deepest sea in the world, and sweeter than honey.”
That high, deep and sweet friendship is also worth a lot of money. The CPEC scheme, which will link western China to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan, is a cornerstone of the ambitious “One Belt, One Road”, a 65-nation strong initiative that aims to create a modern Silk Road connecting the world’s second-largest economy with Central Asia, Europe and Africa.
It is the pet project of Xi Jinping, China’s president, who described the infrastructure-driven scheme this week as “the project of the century” when he met heads of state to discuss progress. On the surface Pakistan is on schedule to be one of the largest beneficiaries of Mr Xi’s ambition and arguably no country has as much to gain. Growth in gross domestic product is running at close to 5 per cent a year but it is not enough to absorb the 2m to 3m people entering the job market annually.