One Belt One Road Initiative: Pakistan's forest-based sector investment opportunities within the context of globalization

China's One Belt One Road (OBOR), a momentous initiative, is going to trigger off multidimensional geo- strategic and geo-economical changes across the globe. Chinese's enterprises are going to hire agricultural lands under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) coalition agreements in Pakistan. Simultaneously, the government of Punjab, Pakistan has promulgated a new set of forest regulations in 2017, which aims at the expansion of forest cover by stimulating private-sector investment (up to 15-years both foreign and local) on potentially productive blank areas of forests. This paper presents potential economic returns of investment for Chinese companies within the forest-sector of Punjab in Pakistan. To take up this endeavor, the diversity in rotation period and assortment of site quality could be significant that can affect the forest-based sector investment. Tree growth and monetary data were collected from seven prominent plantations in the adjacent areas. Interpolative growth of three main tree species (i.e., Dalbergia sissoo, Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Acacia nilotica) was established via regression analysis whereas, financial analysis (conceivable costs and returns) was carried out via Net Present Value (NPV) on a five-year interval age-classes basis. Study revealed that tree growth and financial returns directly corresponded to different site qualities and tree ages. Tree growth of D. sissoo, E. camaldulensis and A. nilotica at site qualities I, II & III were in the range of 104.2 +/- 36.8, 84.2 +/- 23.4 & 57.8 +/- 14.4 (m(3) ha(-1)); 152.8 +/- 96.2, 114.4 +/- 71.3 & 89.7 +/- 33.8 (m(3) ha(-1)) and 173.8 +/- 94.1, 145.7 +/- 53.8 & 95.8 +/- 43.8 (m(3) ha(-1)), respectively. Similarly, their returns came out as 40,941- 25,821 & 8,371 (US$ ha(-1)); 25,564- 16,760 & 10,338 (US$ ha(-1)) and 16,209-11,562 & 4,341 (US$ ha(-1)), respectively. It is evident that E. camaldulensis and A. nilotica grew noticeably faster than D. sissoo but provided fewer net-returns at site qualities, I and II, while E. camaldulensis produced more earnings at site quality III. Investor can fetch maximum returns by restoring the blank forest areas with D. sissoo and E. camaldulensis and maintaining a 15-years rotation plan in current scenario. In view of this attractive opportunity, it is a pioneer study. The information from study is comprehensive, and results are satisfactory to decide about investment in the South Punjab Forest Company (SPFC) for 15-years periods under CPEC agreements.