Source: China Economic Network
As an important pilot project of the "Belt and Road", the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has yielded fruitful results in the past nine years. Today, corridor projects are blossoming across Pakistan. From the opening of fixed liners to the development of Afghan entrepot trade, China's distant-water fisheries cargo transit business, and the smooth progress of supporting projects such as the new Gwadar International Airport, Gwadar Port is steadily advancing towards the goal of strengthening regional connectivity and achieving common regional development. The laborers of China and Pakistan have used their youth and struggle to complete one seemingly impossible project after another.
"Hydroelectric Rose" on the Plateau
When I first met Yang Haiyan, it was hard to imagine that the quiet female designer in front of me was a Chinese hydropower engineer who had been rooted in Pakistan for nearly two decades and had undertaken more than 40 overseas projects. And the first international hydropower project she undertook along the "Belt and Road" is a difficult bone to gnaw on - the Komozan Dam in Pakistan.
The Gomozan Dam is called a century-old dream by Pakistanis, and there is too much helplessness behind it: as early as the end of the 19th century, Pakistan proposed the construction of a dam on the Gomozan River, but countless Western water experts have arrived here, and the complex geological conditions in the local area have deterred them.
The site of the Gaomozan Dam is in a high seismic area, and the geological conditions are relatively poor, making it difficult to meet the requirements of building a high arch dam. Yang Haiyan and the team repeatedly demonstrated the size of the dam, and after a lot of analysis and calculation, it took nearly 20 months to finally put forward a satisfactory design plan, and got the approval of the owner's engineer.
The difficulty of overseas engineering lies not only in technology, but also in the harsh social environment, natural conditions, and diseases and natural disasters. The hardships of the working and living conditions of China's hydropower people are beyond imagination. While working in Pakistan, Yang experienced the India-Pakistan conflict, the hostage abduction incident in 2004, the 2005 South Asian earthquake and the 2010 floods, and even she and her team had to work every day under the protection of the army police with live ammunition.
Ten years of grinding a sword, in 2011, the main dam of the Gaomozan Dam Hub Project was completed. The project has been running well since the power generation was generated in June 2013, which verified the rationality of the design scheme. Pakistan's century-old dream has finally come true.
Yang Haiyan is not only the builder of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, but also a witness to the achievements of Pakistan's hydropower construction. She told us that when she first came to Pakistan, she had to cut off power every day, basically every hour, but after nearly two decades of efforts by power workers in Pakistan and Pakistan, the situation has improved a lot. "I feel that our work is still in the interests of the two peoples." Speaking of this, Yang Haiyan's face was full of proud smiles.
Yang Haiyan (second from right) inspects the projects under construction in Pakistan. Courtesy of respondents
The Gomozan Dam is just a small test of the Chinese hydropower people. As a key construction area of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, energy projects are the vanguard. As of September 2021, CPEC has added 5.2 gigawatts of electricity and 880,000 meters of the national core transmission grid to Pakistan, greatly alleviating the local energy crisis.
On April 17, Pakistani Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif, who has just taken office, made a special trip to inspect the construction site of pakistan's Basha Dam undertaken by China Power Construction. This is the first major infrastructure project that Shabaz Sharif has inspected since taking office. The dam was consulted by Yang Haiyan's team on the world's tallest and largest compacted concrete dam project. When the Basha Dam is completed, this dream project will bring great benefits to the people of Pakistan.
The fruitful fruits of the friendship between China and Pakistan are like the bright pearls embedded in the corridor, which will illuminate thousands of households in Pakistan with the efforts of generations of light chasers.
Pakistan "Li Kui" and "Female Knight"
In Pakistan's Tar coalfield, there is such a special group of minecart drivers, some of whom have been tailors and some who have never driven a minecart, but all of whom have the same identity - Pakistani female drivers. Such a group of female minecart drivers is relatively rare in the world, let alone Pakistan, where the sense of tradition is stronger. The emergence of these female drivers should start from China Machinery and Equipment Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhongshi) to the Tar Coalfield.
Beneath the endless yellow sand of Pakistan's Thar Desert, there is precious Ugin. As the seventh largest lignite mine in the world and the largest in Asia, the Taal Coalfield was discovered in 1991 and has coal reserves of about 175 billion tons, accounting for 95% of Pakistan's total coal reserves. This is important for Pakistan, which is heavily dependent on imports for energy.
Although there is a certain psychological preparation for the harsh environment in the local area, when the Fifth Project Division responsible for coal mining came to the scene, the scene in front of it still surprised the Chinese construction party: full of yellow sand, unbearable heat, latent poisons, it looks like an alien surface, no water, no electricity, no roads, no shelter, no hands and no equipment. At that time, there was a saying in the Chinese of the Thar coalfield: "Stay in Tal for six months, and the unsung hero will break into the world." ”
At that time, the construction site was full of yellow sand and there were no roads. To make matters worse, their first bulldozer could only be towed by trailer to the camp two kilometers away from the site, and there was no suitable equipment to unload the bulldozer. Luckily, locals were able to help in a timely manner, and Izat Khan was one of them. He heard that Chinese to help Pakistan build coal mines, took the initiative to drive his own forklift to solve the urgent needs of the Chinese team, he proposed whether he could join the team, his diligence left a very deep impression on everyone, he became a Pakistani worker in the team.
In the process of coal mine construction, Chinese workers and Pakistani workers sprinkled sweat and dedication of youth on this desert for the same goal. The first six containers of supplies sent from China needed to be transported to the project site, but the trailer suddenly got stuck on the sandy road. At that time, Izzat Khan knelt on the ground and shoveled sand, dragging a wire rope to pull the trailer out of the bunker. With the joint efforts of the employees of China Bus, the six trailers were finally all out of danger. Liu Zhe, commercial manager of the Zhongshi Thar Coal Mine, told us that it was in May, and the temperature of the Thar Desert was close to 50 ° C. Izzat Khan's clothes were completely soaked, and his black face was covered with sweat. Because of His burly and sincere personality, the Chinese team called Yizat Khan "Pakistani Li Kui", and he has always used this new name to introduce himself.
Li Kui sanitize the equipment at the site of Block 2 of the Thar Coal Mine Project. The picture is provided in the middle
According to the contract requirements, the coal mine should employ half of the Pakistani drivers and half the Chinese drivers. However, all of the PCS have used Pakistani drivers for truck driving, and the CPC has established a driver training base to independently recruit and train Pakistani drivers, accumulatively training more than 1,000 Pakistani drivers, of which more than 50 female mining card drivers trained for the local area have become a beautiful landscape. It not only solves the local employment, but also assumes the social responsibility of Chinese state-owned enterprises to go global.
When the NEW crown pneumonia outbreak broke out in China in 2020, the Thar Coal Mine was entering the first phase of operation and maintenance, and it was necessary to continue to ensure the coal supply of the power plant every month, otherwise there was a major safety production risk of unplanned shutdown of the power plant. How to ensure that Chinese and Pakistani employees are not disturbed by the epidemic, while ensuring the electricity consumption of 2.2 million local residents in Pakistan, has become a common problem faced by Chinese and Pakistani builders. Wang Qing, chief engineer and site manager of the Thar open-pit coal mine project, has become the most idle person on the construction site, either holding an epidemic prevention meeting with the owner, or implementing the epidemic prevention requirements with the subcontracting unit, and even when eating, he must also carry out meticulous ideological education for colleagues, he always emphasizes that the on-site project department "will not give up every employee" and "always takes the protection of employee life safety as the primary task". By this year, wang celebrated his sixth year in Pakistan.
Wang Qingxing, chief engineer and site manager of the Thar open-pit coal mine project (second from left), discusses the technical solution with the dredging team. The picture is provided in the middle
With the joint efforts of the builders of the two countries, the Thar Coal Mine Project Team successfully overcame the difficulties caused by the epidemic, floods, and geological conditions. The Pakistani owner directly called out that the smooth operation of the Thar coalfield under the epidemic situation is "a miracle." ”
However, the miracle on the CPEC is not only the Thar coalfield. Since its inception in 2013, CPEC has created one miracle after another: Gwadar Port, the pearl of the Indian Ocean, the Karakoram Highway across the roof of the world, and the Qasim Port Coal-fired Power Station, which accounts for about 1/10 of Pakistan's national grid power supply... Wherever Chinese builders go, the look of the place is renewed.
Infrastructure enterprises like CMEC, as the vanguard of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, not only shoulder the name of China's "infrastructure demon", but also a Chinese business card, bringing energy and employment to Pakistan. Statistics show that after the launch of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor cooperation, a total of 75,000 jobs have been created for Pakistan. No wonder Pakistani Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif has said that CPEC is not just a simple combination of electricity, energy and roads, but a grand blueprint for turning Pakistan into a major emerging economy.
Ba Tie's apprentice who inherited the mantle of a Chinese teacher
In the summer, Muhammad Ali Raza carefully tends the field crops in a pilot demonstration field in Bahawalpur, Punjab province, Pakistan. Unlike traditional food crop cultivation, Ali Laza uses a composite planting technique of corn and soybean strip. It was a new technology he had been exposed to from his Chinese mentor, Professor Yang Wenyu of Sichuan Agricultural University.
The composite planting technology of corn and soybean strip is a technology developed by Yang Wenyu and his team after 18 years. This planting technology makes the double high yield of corn and soybeans a reality.
With the rise of large-scale and intensive animal husbandry in Pakistan, the demand for high-quality feeds such as corn and soybeans has increased sharply, and the gap between supply and demand has increased year by year. In 2019, Pakistan imported about 2 million tons of soybeans. In order to achieve soybean freedom in Pakistan, Ali Raza, who studied in China, tried to bring the new technology learned in China back to Pakistan and promote it to local farmers. However, the road to promotion has not been smooth.
Ali Raza first did experiments in Bahawalpur, Punjab Province, and planted more than 30 acres of corn and soybeans, but no local farmer believed that what this young man did would be successful, and ali Raza heard the most words every day: "Boy, your corn will not bear fruit this way." ”
During ali raza's most difficult time, Professor Yang Wenyu, who was far away in China, reached out to him, he provided funds and seeds for Ali Raza, Yang Wenyu told Ali Raza: "I have full confidence in intercropping technology and you, as long as you work wholeheartedly, one day this technology will be promoted throughout Pakistan." ”
The support of the mentor became a solid backing for Ali Raza, and as the corn and soybeans in the demonstration field thrived, the expectation of "increasing production without increasing land, one field and two incomes" became a reality. Farmers began to change their mindset and gradually became interested in the new technology. At present, people visit the demonstration field every day, and a series of learning and discussion activities are carried out. The Minister of Agriculture of Punjab believes the technology could bring a new green revolution to pakistan's cereal and pulses production. Through soybean cultivation, Pakistan could save $5 billion from imports of raw materials such as oilseeds and poultry feed.
Ali Lazar works in a corn-soybean strip compound planting technology pilot field in Pakistan. Courtesy of respondents
Today, Ali Raza's demonstration field has grown from one mu in the first year to more than 400 mu now, which has led many Pakistani farmers to invest in this harvest. And the agricultural cooperation between China and Pakistan is not only in Bahawalpur. At present, the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has entered a new stage of high-quality development, focusing on cooperation in agriculture and other areas of people's livelihood: the China-Pakistan Agricultural and Industrial Cooperation Information Platform was launched, Longping Hi-Tech helped pakistani rice seeds to be promoted to many countries, and Chinese fungus grass has become pakistan's new favorite for poverty alleviation...
At the same time, Pakistan's new transportation infrastructure and ports are generating positive benefits and facilitating Pakistan's agricultural development and China-Pakistan agricultural cooperation. Cargo ships laden with Pakistani fruits and crops travel across the Indian Ocean; Chinese greenhouses and drip irrigation technology appear in Pakistani fields, which is not just an imagination, but a picture of the mutual benefit and win-win agriculture of China and Pakistan.
CPEC is not a geographical symbol, it is a bridge of friendship that thousands of Chinese workers have left their homes and poured together with the Pakistani people. In the tidal flats, Gobi and no man's land, the builders of the two countries watch out for each other and dedicate themselves to each other, which is the best interpretation of the increase in the reflection of the two countries. (China Economic Network reporter Jia Wei)