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 duringwhat I call CPEC Phase 1 which wasabout 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 happenwas to for us to go into CPEC Phase 2. NowCPC Phase 2 was and remains the way wemonetize that infrastructure becausethat’s where these special economiczones come in, but what we need to do isthrough the special economic zones tobring further Chinese investment andthese are all have to be export oriented, because once that cycle starts goinga lot of discussion as to how you goingto repay the debt. That’s how it wassupposed to happen and as we go forward —I mean we are very grateful to theChinese government we’re very gratefulto the Chinese Banks that theyhave been helping us on thedebt side in terms of rollovers — butultimately these debts have to be paidand that is only going to be therewhen we get the Phase 2 going inreal earnstness and I Ican tell youthis administration’s commitment to thatis huge.”