| China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC)is a flagship project of “One Belt One Road(OBOR)Initiative” announced by Chinese government in March 2013.Unprecedented avenues of economic growth are being offered by the project to Pakistan.The project aims link Xinjiang province of China with the Gwadar Sea port in the Southern Pakistan using high speed railways,energy pipelines and the highway networks.It's a mega project worth $ 55 billion devoted to the infrastructure and energy development in Pakistan,which is aimed to be completed by 2030.The construction work on the project has already started since 2015,yet,some serious concerns are being shown by the analysts about the success of the project due to the governance and security challenges in Pakistan.Governance incorporates the guidelines,institutions,and practices that set restrictions and provide incentives for certain acts.It works at every stage of human activity and it has influence on every segment of the society.It is the state's responsibility to creates an enabling political and legal environment whereas civil society facilitates political,social and economic interaction.A variety of governance issues are being faced by Pakistan,which are hindering the smooth and sustainable development of the country.World Economic Forum report for the year 2016-17 on global competitiveness ranks Pakistan at 122 among 138 countries,which is based on 12 pillars with following rankings: institutions(111),infrastructure(116),macroeconomic environment(116),health and primary education(116),higher education and training(123),goods market efficiency(113),labor market efficiency(129),financial market development(107),technological readiness(119),market size(29),business sophistication(95)and innovation(75).Pakistan lags behind to the last place among the six countries of South Asia,others being India,Bangladesh,Sri Lanka,Nepal and Bhutan.It is believed that a great deal of economic performance of a country is determined by its political,institutional and legal environment.The new institutional economics shows that institutions are fundamental to the effective functioning of market based economies.We refer to these institutions and policies as the governance factors of a country.Positive governance indicators help to define country's investment environment and provide a friendly atmosphere for the foreign companies to implement their economic undertakings.Pakistan has one of the most liberal foreign investment regime in South Asia.The 100% project ownership is being offered to foreign investors by the government of Pakistan in a vast number of sectors and it allows the remittance of capital,profits and dividends without any regulatory approvals.Yet Pakistan lags to its to regional or economic counterparts in FDI inflows.This study aims to discuss governance issues in Pakistan.Some underlying legislative and administrative factors are contributing to governance problems in Pakistan,which have contributed to miss-governance or mal-governance in Pakistan.The study is further expanded to evaluate CPEC under the shadow of these governance challenges and attempts to identify the action strategy to rectify the governance issues in Pakistan.The action strategy recommends guidelines for improvement of governance level in Pakistan to optimize the output from CPEC and improve Pakistan's standings in world ranking of governance.To achieve the objective both qualitative and quantitative data was collected from primary and secondary sources.Primary data was gathered directly through questionnaire and interview whereas secondary data was gathered from journal articles,reports,and published books by using document analysis.Key informant people were purposely and randomly sampled to conduct an interview and questionnaire.Data was analyzed and interpreted by using descriptive statistical technique and empirical analysis.Governance challenges were analyzed and interpreted by using descriptive statistical analysis techniques such as tables and graphs.Empirical data analysis was used to assess possible hindrances being faced by the mega project.Finally,based on the findings actionable strategy has been recommended to policy makers and other stake holders for elimination of the governance issues impending the success of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. |
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