Plug and Play, or Still Plugging In?

Summary

Pakistan markets its CPEC Special Economic Zones as plug and play platforms for Chinese manufacturers looking to relocate. The proposition has held steady for nearly a decade; implementation has not. This Insight tests the claim the way a manufacturer choosing a site would: how far have the zones actually moved from designation into verifiable production, and what does that record imply for the much larger pipeline now promoted under the second phase of CPEC?

It audits the four priority zones, Rashakai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Punjab, Dhabeji in Sindh and Bostan in Balochistan, against four stages that official reporting routinely collapses into the single word “operational”: approval, infrastructure development, plot allotment and production. The public record thins out sharply at the only stage that decides whether a factory can open.

Key findings

1. Production is the missing stage. Across 4 priority zones and roughly 6,000 acres of designated land, only 27 sites can be verified as producing, all of them at Allama Iqbal Industrial City.
2. Allama Iqbal is the only zone that can be independently assessed, because its developer publishes a layout plan. The 2026 layout shows 27 plots in production and 107 under construction, a count taken from the published plan rather than a figure the developer reports.
3. Rashakai has developed 247 of about 1,000 acres, with enterprises registered and some building, but the number of units already producing is not disclosed.
4. Dhabeji and Bostan stop short of production on the public record. Dhabeji, at 1,530 acres, is still at the infrastructure stage, with utility procurement continuing. Bostan has completed a 200-acre first phase and launched plot allotment, with no disclosed occupancy or production.
5. The headline pipeline cannot be decomposed. The January 2026 announcement that approved zones had risen from 7 to 44 does not define its baseline or say how many are developed or operational, so it is best read as a count of approvals alone.

The way forward

The Insight’s first recommendation is that provincial investment authorities and the CPEC Secretariat publish zone level dashboards at fixed intervals, reporting plots allotted, plots under construction, plots with producing tenants, electricity and water connections, road access and customs facilitation. An approval committee for SEZs already publishes records of its proceedings; extending that discipline beyond approvals would cost far less than the infrastructure already committed.

The second is aimed at investors: benchmark every site in the new pipeline against the most concrete evidence available from the existing zones, which today means the Allama Iqbal layout, and ask whether infrastructure is functioning, whether a plot can be taken into production on a defined timetable and whether the local administration can resolve routine operational issues.

Inside the Insight

1. Context
2. Analysis, including a stage by stage audit of the four priority zones
3. Implications
4. The Way Forward
5. A Note on Method and Limitations
6. References

About the author

How to cite

Khan, R. (2026). Plug and Play, or Still Plugging In? Ardent Research Solutions. https://arspakistan.pk/insights/cpec-sez-audit.html

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This summary is drawn from the full publication, which should be read for the sources, qualifications and method behind each finding. It reflects the views of the author and not necessarily those of ARS or its affiliates.