Engagement with Punjab under CPEC: A Proposed Framework for Industry

CPEC is a platform for Pakistan’s provinces to provide Chinese firms an enabling business environment and access to markets, through infrastructure development and low cost labour. In exchange for these facilities, Pakistan will have access to Chinese financing, business experience and capacity, and technological upgrades. Pakistan must identify each province’s priorities towards industrial cooperation with Chinese investors based on their comparative strengths to set the direction of industrial development. Punjab’s priority lies in strengthening its private-sector led industrial development with a priority towards the textile-chain, garments sector. To establish a mutually beneficial industrial outcome, Punjab government must devise and implement policies geared to strengthen existing industries as well as incentivize promising industrial sectors with the aim of targeting market-failures and encouraging spillovers to make them sustainable and competitive in the long-run.

This study was funded by the IGC (2017).

Key Output(s)

Report: Engagement with Punjab under CPEC: A Proposed Framework for Industry

Article: Local Industry and the CPEC Promise

Blog: Formulating an Industrial Policy for Punjab