Chinese businessmen wary of security conditions in Pakistan

Chinese businessmen are complaining that risky security conditions have made it difficult to invest in Pakistan. This is part of a new trend of criticizing investment conditions in Pakistan after years of government pressure to give favourable treatment to China's "all weather" friend. "The biggest concern is personal security. We do not dare to go out at night in Pakistan," Jiang Fukang, project manager of energy major, Sinotrans Limited, said at a recent seminar. State run Global Times recently advised Pakistan to improve its investment conditions if it wants foreign companies to put money in the proposed economic corridor linking it with China and Central Asia. At the seminar in Beijing, another business executive Hu Wei, Chief Strategist of Sinovel Wind, blamed the poor infrastructure for the low investment flows into Pakistan. The criticism comes at a crucial time when Pakistan is expecting to make the Chinese built Gwadar port to become operational with ships moving from it to the Gulf and to China. It also wants additional Chinese funding to expand the facilities in the ambitious project. "There are more than 13,000 Chinese workers in Pakistan. Chinese people are highly respected in Pakistan and the government of Pakistan will make maximum efforts to ensure their safety. Actually, safety incidents involving Chinese workers are very rare," Pakistani ambassador to China Masood Khalid said at the seminar.