Projecting impact of CPEC on Pakistan’s electric power crisis

ABSTRACT The commencement of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor has led to the appreciation of Pakistan’s economic outlook from 5.4% to 5.8% by the World Bank. The upgraded outlook is a welcome sign but it is still trivial, essentially attributable to the electric power crisis, which approximately trims 2% of Pakistan’s economic growth annually. Almost 60% of the CPEC (China–Pakistan Economic Corridor) funds are directed at Pakistan’s energy sector, hence, demanding careful attention of both researchers and policy analysts alike. The study is based upon a meta-analytic review of literature concerning CPEC and Pakistan’s energy sector. The results of the study demonstrate that CPEC is an easing agent for Pakistan’s energy crisis (82.30%). The results also highlight points of concern, including inadequate planning (47%), dilapidated electricity distribution system causing losses (64.7%), and an unsustainable energy mix (64.7%). The study further validates the findings via Spearman’s Rho-Correlation. The rρ value for the possible “resolution of Pakistan’s energy crisis” is 0.5426 achieving a significance level of 98% and a corresponding p-value of 0.0252. The significant negative rρ value attained is −0.4894 which establishes the fact that lack of planning can hinder the energy crisis resolution.