The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the six trade corridors envisioned by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). First conceived in 2013 before being officially launched under the official banner of BRI in 2015, the initiative has now produced dozens of transport and energy infrastructure projects, which together serve to link the economies of China and Pakistan via Kashgar in the north, and the China-financed Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in the south.

The scale of investments envisioned by CPEC holds out the possibility of dramatically expediting Pakistan’s development track and resolving a litany of long-standing infrastructure deficiencies.

But now over six years later, has CPEC delivered on this original promise?