In 2015, Balochistan endured 16 to 18 hours of daily power cuts, roads that turned into gravel tracks, and a port at Gwadar that saw fewer than 20 ships in a year, according to provincial records. A decade of investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has measurably changed each of those facts—though not completely, and not always equitably. The open question now is whether CPEC 2.0 can turn that infrastructure foundation into something Balochistan’s residents feel in their own lives: jobs.
Nationally, 38 CPEC projects worth more than US$25 billion have been completed, including 17 energy initiatives valued at $18 billion. Daily power outages that once ran 18 hours have been reduced to near self-sufficiency. In Balochistan specifically, the 1,320 MW China Hub Coal Power Plant in Hub District—built at a cost of $1.9 billion—became the province’s first large baseload power source. Road connections through the western corridor, such as the Surab-Hoshab N-85 highway, the M-8 linking Hoshab to Gwadar, and the Khuzdar-Basima road, opened terrain that had been effectively cut off from national commerce.
The physical transformation of Gwadar is the most visible marker of the CPEC decade. The New Gwadar International Airport, inaugurated in January 2025 with a $230 million Chinese grant, is Pakistan’s largest airport by area and can handle wide-body aircraft. The Pak-China Friendship Hospital, built with $100 million in Chinese funding, provided free medical treatment to around 43,000 patients from poor communities in Gwadar in 2025 alone. A desalination plant now supplies drinking water to a city that periodically ran dry.
Gap Between Cranes and Careers
This is where honest accounting matters most—because the numbers are real, but the gap between construction employment and lasting economic activity is equally real. According to official documents, CPEC projects in Balochistan have so far created or engaged 7,313 workers across road, energy, port, health, and education schemes. The breakdown tells a fuller story: the Pak-China Friendship Hospital created 515 jobs, of which 441 went to Balochistan domicile holders; Gwadar Port and Free Zone created 216 positions, with 214 going to local residents. The New Gwadar International Airport generated 107 jobs, with 63 held by Balochistan-domiciled individuals—exceeding the federal government’s prescribed 6% quota. Most of these, however, were construction-phase or operational roles tied to individual facilities.
A significant share of high-skill positions is still occupied by technical experts from other provinces or overseas, namely China. The province’s own workforce has not yet been trained to the level industry demands—and that is the real gap CPEC 2.0 must work to close. The broader economic signals are turning, at least on paper. Balochistan is projected to record provincial GDP growth of 5.8% in the upcoming fiscal year, outpacing the national average. The federal government allocated a record 206 billion rupees (roughly $739 million) to Balochistan under the Public Sector Development Programme for 2025-26, with 73.5 billion rupees already disbursed across 148 active projects by March 2026, spanning roads, water, power, and education.
In April 2026, Gwadar Port processed around 11,000 shipping containers in a single month, compared with roughly 8,300 for all of 2025 combined. That surge was driven in part by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, which rerouted global shipping to alternative ports. Gwadar handled it—not a small thing for a port that was a construction site less than a decade ago. But it also underscores the central challenge: a port whose activity spikes because of a war elsewhere has not yet earned a permanent place in global shipping networks.
CPEC Next Phase
CPEC 2.0 is not a rebranding exercise. The 14th Joint Cooperation Committee meeting in Beijing in September 2025 formally adopted an Action Plan for 2025-2029. Its concrete outcomes so far include China’s commitment to finance 85% of the Karakoram Highway realignment; a mutual agreement to jointly secure around $6 billion in multilateral funding for the long-delayed ML-1 railway upgrade; and the signing of 21 business-to-business agreements worth $8.5 billion, presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. These were not declarations of intent—they were signed documents with financing structures behind them.
For Balochistan, the most significant institutional shift under Phase 2.0 is the planned expansion of Special Economic Zones from seven to 44, including 37 newly notified zones coordinated by the Board of Investment. Bostan SEZ in Pishin, a 1,000-acre industrial zone, is among four priority SEZs that have moved into active implementation. Twenty-four enterprises have already been allotted plots there, with those investments projected to generate several thousand additional jobs, predominantly for local residents. The Pak-China Vocational and Technical Institute in Gwadar graduated its largest-ever cohort of 1,200 students in January 2026, evidence that a pipeline of trained local workers is being built.
The most consequential long-term bet for Balochistan, however, sits alongside CPEC rather than inside it. The Reko Diq copper-gold project—one of the world’s largest undeveloped deposits, in Chagai District—secured $3.5 billion in international financing in late 2025 from the Asian Development Bank, the US Export-Import Bank, and other lenders. First copper exports are projected for 2029. Officials estimate the project will generate roughly $70 billion in revenue over its roughly 37-year life and create thousands of construction-phase jobs in Balochistan. This project is part of a broader US-Pakistan economic engagement that could reshape the province’s fortunes, though it also highlights the need for local workforce development—a challenge that echoes across the region, as seen in India's struggles in Myanmar.
Whether CPEC 2.0 can deliver lasting jobs in Balochistan will depend on how effectively these industrial zones and training programs translate into private-sector employment. The infrastructure is in place; the next decade must prove that it can sustain livelihoods, not just cranes.
