KARACHI: India is working on a mega industrial project that could corner Pakistan in its regional trade and investment in the coming years.
The project called Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) requires $200 billion worth of investment, and where as India is investing $13.4 billion from its own pocket, the rest is funded from loans and investment worth $184 billion by 27 leading countries in the world.
Details gathered by Pakistan Today revealed that the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project, that was incorporated in 2008 would complete by the year 2018.
Once the project takes off, India would be able to manufacture and export a wide-range of products in bulk, which would enable the neighboring country to capture maximum share in the regional and international markets, said sources.
Another key purpose of this project is to pre-empt the growing penetration of Chinese products in the region and in the international markets, said sources.
Lenders of the project including Japan, Korea, France, Germany, United States, are key trade partners and leading investors in the world. Their support to India in developing the DMIC would give an edge to the neighboring country and help them become regional leaders in industrial production and exports.
Policy-makers of Pakistan have again shown their inability to cope with the situation, as no serious planning to counter the possible problems the country would be facing after the full-fledged launch of the DMIC is visible.
Pakistan had already lost its water from the rivers to India and in coming years, the country could lose its major chunk of international trade and investment, an analyst of capital market told Pakistan Today.
Instead of wasting their energies on internal political tug of war, rifts and leg-pulling, rulers and policy-makers should seriously consider the implications of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project and should work out a comprehensive strategy to protect and promote country’s regional and international trade and investment, he added.
The Indian project that envisages about $200 billion investment is not a small project and it could cause a huge setback to the economy of Pakistan after its launching, he said.
