The Space Silk Road (SSR): An Avenue for China-Pakistan Space Cooperation

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The Space Silk Road (SSR): An Avenue for China-Pakistan Space Cooperation

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious Chinese undertaking that is simultaneously a surplus recycling mechanism and a multi-stage economic stimulus program. In recent years, the scope of BRI has expanded to include digital and space silk roads beside the original terrestrial and maritime silk roads. This paper is an attempt to analyze the benefits of the Space Silk Road (SSR) in particular, both to Pakistan and to the region in general. This is framed as an avenue of future SinoPakistan space cooperation. While the future benefits are numerous, some short-term benefits include spinoffs from innovation, high-quality research, promotion of STEM education, precision farming, weather monitoring, and better defense systems. However, to fully benefit from SSR, both the Chinese and Pakistani governments need to bring the private sector on board and cultivate public-private space sector cooperation so that both partners can exploit the benefits emanating from ‘critical path redundancy’ and ‘interoperability’.

Working Paper

Hassan_Mujtaba-UWC-SSR-Chi-Pak-MS-UC-REV4-27_Sep_2021-ED-SSA_1.pdfDownload
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Tags: China, Pakistan, Space
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Dr Usman W. Chohan

Dr. Usman W. Chohan is an international economist and academic who was one of the founding Directors of CASS, now serving as Advisor to President CASS on Economic Affairs & National Development. He is among the Top 100 Authors across all subjects & disciplines (out of 1.2 million authors) on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), which is the largest open repository of knowledge in the world. At CASS, he has authored six books in the past five years: (1) Public Value & Budgeting: International Perspectives, (2) Reimagining Public Managers: Delivering Public Value, (3) Public Value and the Digital Economy, (4) Pandemics and Public Value Management, (5) Activist Retail Investors and the Future of Financial Markets (co-edited), and (6) Public Value and the Post-Pandemic Society, all published with Routledge. In the academic realm, his research has been cited widely, and Dr. Chohan has testified before various authorities based on his technical expertise. Dr. Chohan has a PhD in economics from UNSW Australia, where his doctoral work led to the world’s first multidisciplinary synthesis of independent legislative fiscal institutions, and an MBA from McGill University (Canada), with coursework at MIT-Tsinghua. His previous practitioner experience includes working at the National Bank of Canada and the World Bank. He is also the President of the International Association of Hyperpolyglots (HYPIA), the leading organization worldwide for hyperpolyglotism and whose membership consists of the speakers of six or more languages. He appears frequently on domestic and international television, podcasts, and lecture series in various languages. He is also trained in South Asian musicology and plays the sitar. In addition, Dr. Chohan has maintained an annual reading challenge of 100 books every year since 2011. Dr. Chohan’s forthcoming seventh and eighth books are titled Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): Multidisciplinary Perspectives (edited), and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): Innovation and Vulnerability in the Digital Economy (co-edited).