"I am a Chinese, please allow me to explain what CPEC really means from Chinese perspective:
There is an old Chinese saying"要想富，先修路；少生孩子多种树＝if you want get rich, build road first; give less child birth and plant more tree instead”.
Infrastructure is the bone frame for economy. We Chinese called building infrastructure "筑巢引凤＝building a nest to attract female"; a metaphor of a male bird works hard to build its nest in order to attract female bird. It's not how comfortable the nest is, it's the female and her eggs the male is looking for.
Translating this concept into western words means:" If you want something to happen, build an environment that forests it". Infrastructure is the nest, but not the purpose, it's the business it will attract is the really goal.
While building the nest, there are some uncertainty for the male: he doesn't know what the future female looks like, whether she is easy to get along, or how many eggs she will lay..., but as long as he builds the proper nest, some female will come and something surprising can happen. Let me tell a real story:
In a North West province in China, there was 1 of the poorest region, a high mountain area with little to produce. 10 years ago, CCP gov. started building roads and people started plant trees just like what the old Chinese saying. The trees completely improve the climate. One day, 1 local official traveled to a rich area in south of China, where he saw a famous brand of crabs. This particular kind of crab was considered a delicacy which people would pay high price for. He noticed that the climate in that area was very similar to that of his hometown, so he thought it might be possible for his area to grow the same kind of crabs. He tried and was successful. The crabs were sold on internet and his people got rich in just 2 years!
http://news.china.com/domestic/945/20170113/30169525_all.html
You see, the trees made raising crabs possible, and roads enable these crabs reach the market! Once the government provide the proper environment, people can find all kinds of way of helping themselves. The interesting things is that you don't know what exactly will happen while you are building the nest!
I have no doubt that Pakistan can repay the money for building CPEC with fairly ease. Its geo-location (very close to the center of Eurasian land), the size of its land mass (2-3 times that of Japan), its natural resource (much more than Japan has ) and its proper size of population (200 ml is a perfect size), a single language that unify the whole country; I would expect that Pakistan will reach its economic potential to the size of Japan's GDP! So, instead of saying how many jobs CPEC will "create"; it should say how many jobs CPEC will "ATTRACT”.
A week ago, G. Britain officially expressed its desire to be a "Key partner" of CPEC. That's 1 "female" the CPEC nest has attracted!! http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/uk-eyeing-projects-in-china-pakistan-economic-corridor/story-D9IXvAyh0DkJDasHnzzNxL.html
A few days ago, China again added more investment to CPEC, now the total amount has reached 62 BL. Why? I believe it's because more "females" want to come to the nest, there are more project to be built and Gwadar port needs to be expanded 10 time than the originally planned. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/dB5tQKISoKNrvl7EwDPFbP/Chinas-CPEC-investment-in-Pakistan-reaches-62-billion.html
A Chinese scholar recently predicted that Pakistan's economy growth would be 8-10% for the next 30 years. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/196895-Pakistan-can-attain-8-10pc-growth-rate-over-next-30-years
CPEC definitely is NOT just a road where Pakistan would collect tolls and setup gas stops! Pakistan has a potential to be a combination of Japan and Singapore. We Chinese believe Pakistan's economy will look good!
The only thing I am worrying is whether Pakistani can handle this big amount of money and wealth at such fast growing speed! Does Pakistan/ can have a government and political system that match this fast pace economic growth?
To be economically successful, a centralized government standing for 40 years is a must; just look at Singapore. However, in this part of region, including India and Pakistan, there was no tradition of centralized governing, people are so used to live in small groups/tribes. I hope Pakistan could produce a military commander like Mao, ze-dong and Deng, xiao-ping and people are willing to obey the leaders." unquote
