Turkey to invest over $46B on railways, expand high-speed network to 41 cities

[Falcon26]

I live in Lahore & often see the carcass of Orange Line Metro Train Project. It was to be the first step but it never got completed, thanks to Saqib Nisar.

Pakistan can not afford development expenditure while the economy is in such doldrums with Corona virus on the loose. These are dreams for now. I don't see any positive development until 2023 at least.



Many ex-PTI-supporters like myself saw how PTI was shaping up from August 2014 on-wards. All that has happened in last 22 months has not been a surprise. Fixing the economy (only the economy) will take at least three years, provided the quality of decision-making improves drastically. I have low hopes. Development projects like fast trains are day-dreams. Pakistan could not even contemplate completion of ML-1 project (dual track Karachi to Peshawar), if it was not part of CPEC. How will Pakistan pay-back the loans if economy does not grow & provide more tax revenue?

One way of financing could be selling off the SOEs that are now as expensive as the entire military budget. These SOEs haven’t turned a profit for decades so their continued financing is criminal.

by the way, I am not suggesting mega infrastructure spending. What I am saying is Pakistan can invest in these Turkish companies that are leading innovations in electric vehicles, trains etc and as Pakistan’s own economy improves in the long term, Pakistan can help bring them to Pakistan and set up Pakistani subsidiaries etc.

In 2001, the South African company Naspers invested $32-million for a 46.5% stake of the Chinese startup Tencent. Today, Naspers is $400-billion plus company, almost all of which comes from its investment in Tencent. Pakistan needs to change the way it does business and take bold and creative look at improving its economic situation.