Pakistan’s Finance Minister Mohammed Aurangzeb has told a Chinese television that the country will be able to repay its Chinese debt only after the second phase of the CPEC is completed.

The rather blunt statement from Muhammad Aurangzeb came as he spoke to the American edition of CGTN during his visit to Washington where he has heled meetings with the US officials and officials of leading monetary institutions including the IMF and the World Bank.

Aurangzeb said CPEC is “the champion project in terms of belt and road [initiative]. I mean that was a a big commitment from China into Pakistan and a lot of infrastructure was created during what I call CPEC Phase 1 which was about the road infrastructure” and ports.

However, Aurangzeb said that the second phase of CPEC project was equally important and the way forward to repay the billion of dollars to China.

The finance minister indicated that Pakistan expects more Chinese investment in the special economic zones.

“Now what was supposed to happen was to for us to go into CPEC Phase 2. Now CPC Phase 2 was and remains the way we monetize that infrastructure because that’s where these special economic zones come in, but what we need to do is through the special economic zones to bring further Chinese investment and these are all have to be export oriented, because once that cycle starts going a lot of discussion as to how you going to repay the debt. That’s how it was supposed to happen and as we go forward — I mean we are very grateful to the Chinese government we’re very grateful to the Chinese Banks that they have been helping us on the debt side in terms of rollovers — but ultimately these debts have to be paid and that is only going to be there when we get the Phase 2 going in real earnstness and I Ican tell you this administration’s commitment to that is huge.”