Report by Engineering Post
Transport infrastructure was a precursor to the sustainable economic growth in Pakistan. Transport infrastructure was indispensable for fostering the economic growth, promoting regional integration, enhancing accessibility and connectivity, supporting urban development, facilitating tourism and recreation, optimizing logistics and supply chains, driving rural development, and enhancing resilience to emergencies. Investing in transport infrastructure as such was essential for sustainable development and improving the overall well-being of societies. Improving transport and connectivity remains one of the seven pillars of Pakistan Vision and the sectoral interventions have been reflected in the subsequent national economic/ development plans and programmes.
Improving the transport infrastructure has a positive spillover effect on economic growth , creating greater access to global markets, higher foreign investments, opportunities to exploit economies of scale, and enhanced employment opportunities.
Transport infrastructure consists of all the basic means of transportation, including roads, railways, airports, and seaports. Geographically speaking, Pakistan is centrally located in South Asia, sharing borders with China, India, Afghanistan, and Iran.
Due to its strategic location in the region, Pakistan has been a key layer in the One Belt One Road initiative spearheaded by China. One of the corridors of this important initiative is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which has been prioritized by the Chinese Government. And in the CPEC a considerable amount of work and investment has been made in the Transport Infrastructure projects.
Transport -related infrastructure development can contribute to economic growth in multiple ways. It helps to generate employment opportunities , increases industrial productivity, improves the cost-.effectiveness of businesses, and provides access to various public services for citizens engaged in socio-economic activities. Two economic activities that heavily depend on transport are; 1) Logistics and Distribution which includes the movement of goods from manufacturers to distributors, retailers, and consumers and efficient transport systems are essential for timely delivery and cost-effective operations, and 2) Tourism and Travel as the tourism industry relies heavily on transport infrastructure to facilitate the movement of tourists to and from destinations, as well as within destinations for various activities and sightseeing. Pakistan has the potential to grow its economy through transit trade.
Being part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Central Asia Regional Economic Corporation (CAREC) and Khyber Pass Economic Corridor (KPEC), Pakistan has tremendous potential for revenue generation through road rail connectivity. The Federal Government along with the provincial stakeholders was making concerted efforts for investment in the road and rail connectivity throughout the country and also working on various policies and plans to facilitate the transit trade thus boosting the economy of the country It was worth mentioning here that Pakistan has been excluded from the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI)’s latest edition in 223, due to inadequate assessments by logistics providers, which ranks only 139 countries. However, as per World Bank’s LPI 2018, a measure of country’s ease to move goods with speed and reliability ranked Pakistan at 122nd position amongst 160 countries with other regional countries. This quite obviously shows that the country directly needs to upgrade its efforts to improve its logistics services, transport and trade related infrastructure on priority basis.
