Beijing [China]: Chinese insurance company ‘Sinosure’ has held back insurance cover to six major energy power projects worth USD 5 billion, these projects are a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The company has also underwritten around USD 8 billion insurance cover to Mainline-1, a 1,733km railway line from Karachi to Peshawar, Pakistani newspaper Dawn News reported. Meanwhile, the Imran Khan government has urged Beijing to persuade the China-based insurance company to clear about USD 13 billion insurance covers of energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan, Dawn news reported. Special Assistant to the Pakistan Prime Minister on CPEC Khalid Mansoor has taken up the matter to the Chinese ambassador in Islamabad. Mansoor has written a letter to the Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), urging for his intervention to resolve all issues relating to strategically important projects on a priority basis. The strategically important projects include ML-1 (Karachi-Peshawar railway line) and six energy projects including Gwadar, Karrot, Kohala and Azad Pattan, Thar Block-VI and Thal-Nova power projects besides Quaid-i-Azam Solar power project, Dawn reported. “We have written two separate letters to NDRC for resolution of issues hampering the financial close of six energy projects and the term sheet for ML-I project,” Mansoor said. “The nature of the friendly relationship between Pakistan and China was such that their companies had never called government guarantees despite huge overdue receivables from Pakistan,” Mansoor was quoted as saying by Dawn. This came a month after a Chinese state company expressed concerns over the slow pace of progress on the remaining portion of the ‘Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park’ project which is a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The project has been delayed because of a number of issues including complications from Pakistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) and the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).
