Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on China-Pakistan Economic Relations under Belt and Road Initiative

How Belt and Road Initiative Helped Pakistan's Combat against the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Although the speed of BRI construction is unavoidably slowed down because its member countries must transfer their resources to responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, CPEC is welcomed by most politicians in Pakistan and was believed to bring economic development and prosperity to the country directly [45]. This is also evident from various news reports, where statements made by the chief of Pakistan's army are unequivocally supportive of the CPEC project [44].…”

“…China and Pakistan are allying countries that share bilateral ties and similar stances about economic and political issues [43]. According to the study by Belova et al, the economic cooperation between China and Pakistan started decades before the pandemic [45]. For instance, China's imports to Pakistan increased from 7.34% to 24.78%, and the exports from Pakistan to China increased from 2.18% to 8.58% from 2003 to 2019.…”

“…Even under the pandemic, Chinese investment in Pakistan rose to $332.1 billion from July to October 2021. Meanwhile, the export of zero-tariff items, including leather, yarn, and some other agricultural goods, from Pakistan to China widened to 75% [45]. Khan et al argue that Pakistan's exports to China in the first quarter of 2021 increased by 70% ($888 million) compared to the first quarter of 2020, and the total export amount in 2020 reached more than $15 billion when projects under CPEC came into action [43].…”

Assessing the Impact of Community Factors on Local Community Support for Tourism: An Empirical Investigation of the China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor

“…The construction of road and transport infrastructure has an important long-term effect on the development of a region. As a result, the development of road and transport infrastructure not only plays a key role in developing current tourist sites but can also establish other tourism-related activities (Kanwal et al, 2020b;Belova et al, 2022). In addition, previous studies have identified a substantial relationship between tourism activities and infrastructure development (Li et al, 2019;Nazneen et al, 2019).…”

Exploring the China-Pakistan economic corridor project performance during Covid-19 pandemic

“…One significant example is the delay and disruptions caused by the pandemic in the construction and operation of CPEC-related projects. As a flagship component of BRI, CPEC relies heavily on moving personnel, equipment, and materials between China and Pakistan [ 11 ]. However, the pandemic led to the closure of borders, suspension of international flights, and quarantine measures, severely hampered the smooth execution of various CPEC ventures.…”