Innovation of the Social Security, Legal Risks, Sustainable Management Practices and Employee Environmental Awareness in The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I think the paper is interesting for the readers. It describes the influence of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan's economy and society, but in the current status it is not suitable for publication. It is necessary to define better the objectives of the paper, the method of research and the results from the research.
Some indications are developed that need to be corrected to improve the quality of the article:
1.- Lines 12 and 13. The description of the acronym “CPEC” must be in the line 12, in the first time it is mentioned.
2.- Line 14. The acronym “BRI” is not described.
3.- Line 20. The acronym “CEP” is not described.
4.- It is necessary a section of “Acronyms”. There are many throughout the article and it will help the reader.
5.- Lines 78 and 79. The sentence “It will be concluded that LR, SS, and EEA negatively influence the CPEC because of the lack of policy framework developed under the BIT[25]”. Is it a conclusion from the article or the verification of this assertion is one of the objectives of the article?
6.- In Table 1 the energy projects under CPEC are described. There are three phases, first “Projects Completed”, second “Project under construction” and third phase indicates again “Under construction”. I think it is a mistake, it should be “Projects in design” or something like this.
7.- It would be advisable for a better understanding of the readers to have a figure showing the CPEC area and reflecting the different phases of the investments.
8.- Line 242. Right sentence is “Table 2….”
9.- Table 2. I think there are various incoherencies: Population of the research sum 567 persons. In percentage both genders sum 115.6%. Non-managerial and managerial (regard on the level of job) sums 461 and after the distribution by age sums 470. Also, the Non-managerial and managerial percentages sum 107% and percentages of age sum 107.5%.
10.- Something like this happens with Table 3. Number of participants sums 484 (another amount different of the Table 2) and their percentages sum 109.6%.
11.- Material and Methods section must be re-written. It is necessary to explain better the method of the research, the hypothesis, etc. In the research is there a survey? The data of the subsection 2.5 and 2.6 what are representing?
12.- In lines 274 and 275 you write: “To assess the data and provide solutions to these research questions, qualitative and quantitative methods are applied”. Which are these methods? You must describe in the section “Material and Methods”.
13.- The statistics used in the subsection 4.5 must be explained within the “Material and Methods” section. The explanation of the results of the subsection 4.5 must be better explained, the data for the analysis are obtained? What do the results tell us?
14.- In lines 385 and 386 you formulate a hypothesis within the 5.3 subsection about Rural women in Pakistan: “As China and Pakistan develop, their geographic distance from one another and from other nearby nations will decrease, resulting in increased trade and economic growth”. How does this statement affect the development of rural women in Pakistan?
15.- Conclusions sections must be re-written. This section must reflect the conclusions of the research. Currently in the section appear many new and specific references about some issues that do not appear in previous sections, as the reduction of CO2, the reduction and management of fuel waste, the number of courts, etc. Many of these themes should be appear in the section 5. Conclusiones must be more general and especially what they contribute to the scientific literature, not just to the case study.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
I think the paper is interesting for the readers. It describes the influence of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan's economy and society, but in the current status it is not suitable for publication. It is necessary to define better the objectives of the paper, the method of research and the results from the research.
Some indications are developed that need to be corrected to improve the quality of the article:
Point 1.- Lines 12 and 13. The description of the acronym “CPEC” must be in the line 12, in the first time it is mentioned.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's kind suggestion to improve the Lines 12 and 13; in the revised version of the abstract, we have edited according reviewer’s correction
This research is about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is an important and first project of the "Belt and Road initiative” (BRI). BRI is the framework and manifesto for wide-ranging, fundamental collaboration signed by China and Pakistan in 2013. The CPEC vision and mission are initiated to develop economic growth and facilitate free trade; the people’s living standards of Pakistan and China through bilateral investments, trade, cultural exchanges, and economic activities; between both countries. The initial investment for the project was $46 billion, with a tentative duration of fifteen years. This research aims to inquire into the effects of Legal Risks (LR), Social Security (SS), and Employee Environmental Awareness (EEA) on the project performance (PP) of the CPEC. It further investigates the significance of the Gender Empowerment Perspectives (GEP). A research framework consisting of this quantitative analysis, the bilateral impacts of the study are explored through several policy scenarios in 2025. The results of the risk analysis will be rated on a Likert scale. A questionnaire survey would be used in order to collect data and test the research framework and hypotheses. An empirical test will be conducted using a dataset's partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to validate the study.
Point 2.- Line 14. The acronym “BRI” is not described.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's scholarly suggestion and modified
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a plan made by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 146 countries and international organizations to improve the global infrastructure development strategy.
Point 3.- Line 20. The acronym “CEP” is not described.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's scholarly suggestion and modified
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) vision and mission are initiated to develop economic growth and facilitate free trade; the people’s living standards of Pakistan and China through bilateral investments, trade, cultural exchanges, and economic activities.
Point 4.- It is necessary a section of “Acronyms”. There are many throughout the article and it will help the reader.
Thank you very much for the reviewer's notice. Yes, it will be helpful to readers.
Point 5.- Lines 78 and 79. The sentence “It will be concluded that LR, SS, and EEA negatively influence the CPEC because of the lack of policy framework developed under the BIT [25]”. Is it a conclusion from the article or the verification of this assertion is one of the objectives of the article?
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's confirmation about Lines 78 and 79; yes, it’s one of the objectives of our recent research work.
Point 6.- In Table 1 the energy projects under CPEC are described. There are three phases, first “Projects Completed”, second “Project under construction” and third phase indicates again “Under construction”. I think it is a mistake, it should be “Projects in design” or something like this.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's scholarly suggestion, change under construction to projects design
Point 7.- It would be advisable for a better understanding of the readers to have a figure showing the CPEC area and reflecting the different phases of the investments.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's advice and we have added CPEC location in main document.
Point 8.- Line 242. Right sentence is “Table 2….”
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's notified and correction, and we have edited the correct sentence.
9.- Table 2. I think there are various incoherencies: Population of the research sum 567 persons. In percentage both genders sum 115.6%. Non-managerial and managerial (regard on the level of job) sums 461 and after the distribution by age sums 470. Also, the Non-managerial and managerial percentages sum 107% and percentages of age sum 107.5%.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's kind correction of percentage, we have modified in main document according reviewer’s scholarly suggestion.
Point 10.- Something like this happens with Table 3. Number of participants sums 484 (another amount different of the Table 2) and their percentages sum 109.6%.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's kind correction of percentage, we have modified in main document according reviewer’s scholarly suggestion.
Point 11.- Material and Methods section must be re-written. It is necessary to explain better the method of the research, the hypothesis, etc. In the research is there a survey? The data of the subsection 2.5 and 2.6 what are representing?
Thank you, reviewer kind suggestion, to improve the quality of the Material and Methods section re-write the revised part is given below:
This paper comprises the author's analysis, an evaluation of the literature review and jurisprudence, and personal reflections on the CPEC project's legal regulations. The research was based on articles from peer-reviewed English journals in the aforementioned databases and the official websites of the participating countries. PubMed, the Web of Science, served as the source for the study's data published between 2013 and 2022 and used certain keywords. The rule of law has to do with legal risks, social security, environmental awareness among employees, the CPEC, and women's empowerment.
The CPEC aspires to improve people's quality of life in China and Pakistan through bilateral investments, trade, cultural exchanges, and economic activities. Pakistan and China set up the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (CPECA) to help reach this goal. Our research Methods and focus on how CPEC in Pakistan has empowered women. It looks at how rules can be made to get more women to work on the CPEC Project.
It also talks about how employees can be more aware of the environment. Consequently, in order to give this concept some context, to analyze the data and answer these study problems, qualitative and quantitative methods were used, and this research addresses three major issues of research questions. Specifically, a single circumstance study was used to answer the CPEC authority of initiative, governance, and practice question. (1) How does this promote women's and girls' equal rights in the effects of passing through the CPEC route on local women; (2) What is the difference between gender equity, gender equality, gender employment, and women's empowerment in the CPEC project? (3) What helps women break out of the cycle of poverty and build their futures? A situation study is the most popular approach used to conduct a thorough investigation of current occurrences that the investigator has little or no influence over. The questionnaire was used to collect data in a systematic way to answer the CPEC authority impact question, which compared how the local community changed before and after CPEC transnational projects were built and how the CPEC authority worked.
Point 12.- In lines 274 and 275 you write: “To assess the data and provide solutions to these research questions, qualitative and quantitative methods are applied”. Which are these methods? You must describe in the section “Material and Methods”.
Response: Thank you for the reviewer's suggestions in the revised lines 274 and 275. We have revised the main document of the section Material and Methods.
Point 13.- The statistics used in the subsection 4.5 must be explained within the “Material and Methods” section. The explanation of the results of the subsection 4.5 must be better explained, the data for the analysis are obtained? What do the results tell us?
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's suggestions. We have explained it thoroughly in response to scholarly comments; the revised version is provided below.
Items from the prior study were used. All variables were computed to identify which variables had the highest and lowest mean values to understand better research variables like mean, standard deviation, and correlation tables. 4-5 below provide all variables' descriptive statistics and correlation matrix. There is a high association between CPEC expansion and employment opportunities (r =.516, p 0.05), education improvement and CPEC (r =.618, p 0.05), and quality of life and CPEC (r =.589, p 0.05). All correlation values are less than 0.80 and significant at the two-tailed level. while the standard deviation ranges from 0.48 to 0.58, suggesting that mean values are above average. The table shows how the CPEC's integration significantly increased foreign direct investment, benefiting the country. However, there has been a global decline in investment activities and remittances as a current result of the COVID-19 epidemic and the lockdown scenario. It displays direct investment in China and Pakistan.
Point 14.- In lines 385 and 386 you formulate a hypothesis within the 5.3 subsection about Rural women in Pakistan: “As China and Pakistan develop, their geographic distance from one another and from other nearby nations will decrease, resulting in increased trade and economic growth”. How does this statement affect the development of rural women in Pakistan?
Response: Thank you very much, reviewer, for your scholarly correction to improve the quality of the manuscript’s hypothesis. Honorable reviewer, we all authors have discussed how "as China and Pakistan develop, their geographic distance from one another and other nearby nations will decrease, resulting in increased trade and economic growth." But there was confusion and misunderstanding regarding your question, so we have designed new specific predictions of the hypothesis, which are provided below and previously removed. We appreciate your thoughtful suggestions for improving our manuscript for readers.
H1. Pakistani rural women's perceptions of their own self-improvement and CPEC's development act as mediators.
H2. CPEC significantly influences rural development.
H3. Opportunities for women are regarded to be significantly more favorable in rural areas due to rural development.
H4. Rural development greatly affects how rural women feel about the quality of their lives.
H5. Rural development is a link between the growth of CPEC and rural women's ideas about how they can improve themselves in Pakistan.
Point 15.- Conclusions sections must be re-written. This section must reflect the conclusions of the research. Currently in the section appear many new and specific references about some issues that do not appear in previous sections, as the reduction of CO2, the reduction and management of fuel waste, the number of courts, etc. Many of these themes should be appear in the section 5. Conclusions must be more general and especially what they contribute to the scientific literature, not just to the case study.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's kind suggestion to improve the manuscript; in the revised version of the manuscript, we have edited the conclusion and added according reviewer’s scholarly suggestion in main document.
We are all grateful for the reviewers' valuable time spent on improving our research work; all of the suggestions and recommendations for the edition were excellent. Thank you once again.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The topic of the paper is interesting and current.
However, in my opinion the paper has the following weaknesses:
- In my opinion there is not a systematic literature review as stated by the authors, but merely a presentation of the situation
- The authors, at section 4.5, say We used items from the previous study. What study is it about?
- The authors should complete the conclusions with the limitations of the research and the future research directions.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The topic of the paper is interesting and current.
However, in my opinion the paper has the following weaknesses:
Point:- In my opinion there is not a systematic literature review as stated by the authors, but merely a presentation of the situation
Thank you very much for the reviewer's suggestions to corrected part of literature review. We have modified the systematic literature review and added a figure showing more clearly the CPEC's location according to the reviewer's scholarly suggestions.
CPEC's growth of transportation infrastructure projects has affected local citizens' education. Additionally, officials frequently assess community needs, acceptance, and lifestyle using the outcomes of regional community behavior. The local communities will benefit from and view project development. It is a proven fact that when residents profit from the growth of CPEC projects and see it favorably, they have faith in the CPEC policies and offer more support. So, the current study considers a lot of the regional community's benefit-based approaches and the host community's feelings about CPEC projects will be built.
The CPEC would fund the construction of economic zones alongside it is trade routes, including Khuzdar to Bisma, Gwadar-Hosab, the Karachi to Lahore, and Karakorum motorways as railway lines to link them. This connectivity is intended to guarantee goods access for trades and consumers to enhance domestic business and investment. Railway tracks would also be extended from Karachi-Peshawar to improve connections and expand transportation options. For long-term and medium-term investments, Pakistan has designated nine favorable trade zones. In order to increase Pakistan's exports to international markets, stronger development investments are being made, and a mix of energy technologies is focusing on manufacturing development. This will encourage the expansion of logistics, transportation, and enriched exports from Pakistan. The industrial and infrastructure growth of development parts of the CPEC are developing into an efficient tool for decreasing Pakistan's national debt and improving profitability for repaying CPEC debts [36]. The CPEC infrastructure expansion and concurrent key interconnection have created a more competitive environment for the Central Asian states to interchange and vend their commodities in the international markets. Pakistan wants to travel through Afghanistan to Central.
The goal of the CPEC projects is to promote the growth of economic and free commerce among the two nations. However, that has also led to a significant increase in employment opportunities, worker environmental awareness, social security, educational opportunities, legal risks, assessments of the rule of law, and an improvement in the standard of life for residents, particularly women global outsmart. This research study explores and analyzes the advantages of the CPEC plan and how it affects attitudes toward women's empowerment—considering what we understand about the CPEC.
Point :- The authors, at section 4.5, say We used items from the previous study. What study is it about?
Thank you very much for the reviewer's investigation and scholarly question about use items from previous study in section 4.5.
We used items from the previous study about the opportunities of Employment, Improvement of Education, Life of Quality in CPEC projects. All variables were computed to determine which variables had the highest and lowest mean values in order to better comprehend research variables like mean, standard deviation, and correlation, which shows the descriptive statistics and correlation matrix for all the variables, there is a strong correlation between the growth of CPEC and employment opportunities, also, the correlation and standard deviation were used to determine how the variables were related and to see how different the responses were.
Point :- The authors should complete the conclusions with the limitations of the research and the future research directions.
Thank you very much for the reviewer's kind suggestion to improve conclusions with limitation of research and future research direction we have edited and added par of limitation of future research, the revised version is provided below.
Future researchers can use limitations as a guide to investigate innovative studies because they are key identifiers for them. Since no single study can fully address every possible scenario, each has some methodological, contextual, or theoretical constraints. Future researchers can build on this study's findings by examining the model in different cultural organizations or comparing various companies and nations, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, using contextual constraints. The academics are urged to create the underlying theories that would explain how a working woman's empowerment perspective could be used to deal with "employee environmental awareness," "negative workplace attitudes," "resistance to change," "counterproductive work behaviors," and "deviant workplace behaviors" in a positive way. Last but not least, future researchers should add organizational-level variables to the model that is already there.
We are all grateful for the reviewers' valuable time spent on improving our research work; all of the suggestions and recommendations for the edition were excellent. Thank you once again.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Thank you for the opportunity to review this manuscript about the innovation of social security, legal risks, and sustainable management practices in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The study is very important, especially from the perspective of women’s empowerment in the CPEC project. The manuscript is well-written and organized, with a clear abstract, introduction, and conclusion. The results are interesting, with detailed analyses and substantial background information. However, I believe that with some significant changes, this paper could be a helpful study, and I suggest that to author make some minor changes before publication.
Please address the following comments and modify the manuscript accordingly:
Ø I think the title of the paper needs to be modified.
Ø Please modify the abstract it shows some vague sentences.
Ø Avoid using too many capitalized letters; use them when needed.
Ø I suggest rewriting a section of Material and Methods
Ø If possible, Material and Methods should be written before the literature review and after the introduction section
Ø Remove the color from the tables.
Ø Line 342 Please correct the date.
Ø Please check that some sentences are in italics; make them normal if possible.
Ø Change the citation style in the manuscript according to the journal standard. Follow journal guidelines carefully.
Ø Line: 213-214 correct the sentences. The consequences of CPEC on the Pakistani community have barely been studied. This research includes an inclusive review of the prior literature in two disciplines.
Ø Overall whole literature review part should revise carefully, the author should organize systematically, and the flow of ideas and clarity is very important. Authors should discuss previous research work blearily and include the innovation of current research work.
Ø Line: 318-321 correct the sentences. “The study underscores this disparity in terms of a crucial but frequently disregarded question to look at how CPEC can change the game for Pakistani women. It would either significantly advance the status of women in Pakistan or exacerbate their already precarious position.”
Ø Line 432 and ISIS are just a few examples; please write a complete sentence.
Ø Please rewrite separate Conclusions and Discussion sections.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 3 Comments
Thank you for the opportunity to review this manuscript about the innovation of social security, legal risks, and sustainable management practices in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The study is very important, especially from the perspective of women’s empowerment in the CPEC project. The manuscript is well-written and organized, with a clear abstract, introduction, and conclusion. The results are interesting, with detailed analyses and substantial background information. However, I believe that with some significant changes, this paper could be a helpful study, and I suggest that to author make some minor changes before publication.
Please address the following comments and modify the manuscript accordingly:
Point Ø I think the title of the paper needs to be modified.
Thank you very much reviewer’s kind suggestion to modify the title of paper, we have done modify according reviewer’s guide line “Innovation of The Social Security, Legal Risks, Sustainable Management Practices and Employee Environmental Awareness in The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
Point Ø Please modify the abstract it shows some vague sentences.
Thank you for the reviewer's suggestion to improve the abstract part. In the revised manuscript, we have revived the manuscript according to the reviewer's suggestions. The revised manuscript is given below:
This research is about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is an important and first project of the "Belt and Road" initiative (BRI). BRI is the framework and manifesto for wide-ranging, fundamental collaboration signed by China and Pakistan in 2013. The CPEC vision and mission are initiated to develop economic growth and facilitate free trade; the people’s living standards of Pakistan and China through bilateral investments, trade, cultural exchanges, and economic activities; between both countries. The initial investment for the project was $46 billion, with a tentative duration of fifteen years. This research aims to inquire into the effects of Legal Risks (LR), Social Security (SS), and Employee Environmental Awareness (EEA) on the project performance (PP) of the CPEC. It further investigates the significance of the Gender Empowerment Perspectives (GEP). A research framework consisting of this quantitative analysis, the bilateral impacts of the study are explored through several policy scenarios in 2025. The results of the risk analysis will be rated on a Likert scale. A questionnaire survey would be used in order to collect data and test the research framework and hypotheses. An empirical test will be conducted using a dataset's partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to validate the study.
Poin Ø Avoid using too many capitalized letters; use them when needed.
Thank you for the reviewer's kind suggestion to improve manuscript and we have removed some capitalized letters where we used
Poin Ø I suggest rewriting a section of Material and Methods
Thank you for the reviewer's suggestion to rewriting a section of Material, we have modified the manuscript according to the reviewer's suggestions. The revised part is given below:
This paper comprises the author's analysis, an evaluation of the literature review and jurisprudence, and personal reflections on the CPEC project's legal regulations. The research was based on articles from peer-reviewed English journals in the aforementioned databases and the official websites of the participating countries. PubMed, the Web of Science, served as the source for the study's data published between 2013 and 2022 and used certain keywords. The rule of law has to do with legal risks, social security, environmental awareness among employees, the CPEC, and women's empowerment.
The CPEC aspires to improve people's quality of life in China and Pakistan through bilateral investments, trade, cultural exchanges, and economic activities. Pakistan and China set up the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (CPECA) to help reach this goal (80). Our research Methods and focus on how CPEC in Pakistan has empowered women. It looks at how rules can be made to get more women to work on the CPEC Project.
Items from the prior study were used. All variables were computed to identify which variables had the highest and lowest mean values to understand better research variables like mean, standard deviation, and correlation tables. 4-5 below provide all variables' descriptive statistics and correlation matrix. There is a high association between CPEC expansion and employment opportunities (r =.516, p 0.05), education improvement and CPEC (r =.618, p 0.05), and quality of life and CPEC (r =.589, p 0.05). All correlation values are less than 0.80 and significant at the two-tailed level. while the standard deviation ranges from 0.48 to 0.58, suggesting that mean values are above average. The table shows how the CPEC's integration significantly increased foreign direct investment, benefiting the country. However, there has been a global decline in investment activities and remittances as a current result of the COVID-19 epidemic and the lockdown scenario. It displays direct investment in China and Pakistan.
It also talks about how employees can be more aware of the environment. Consequently, in order to give this concept some context, to analyze the data and answer these study problems, qualitative and quantitative methods were used, and this research addresses three major issues of research questions. Specifically, a single circumstance study was used to answer the CPEC authority of initiative, government, and practice question. (1) How does this promote women's and girls' equal rights in the effects of passing through the CPEC route on local women; (2) What is the difference between gender equity, gender equality, gender employment, and women's empowerment in the CPEC project? (3) What helps women break out of the cycle of poverty and build their futures? A situation study is the most popular approach used to conduct a thorough investigation of current occurrences that the investigator has little or no influence over. The questionnaire was used to collect data in a systematic way to answer the CPEC authority impact question, which compared how the local community changed before and after CPEC transnational projects were built and how the CPEC authority worked.
Poin Ø If possible, Material and Methods should be written before the literature review and after the introduction section
Thank you very much for reviewer’s idea about Material and Methods should be written before the literature review and after the introduction section, but we have followed according journal format recently.
Poin Ø Remove the color from the tables.
Thank you, we have modified that according reviewer.
Poin Ø Line 342 Please correct the date.
Thank you very much for reviewer’s kind suggestions, we have corrected check blow.
Passing a law is only one obstacle in the way of refining the lives of women. The gap between women's realism and what is written in the laws is still very extensive
Poin Ø Please check that some sentences are in italics; make them normal if possible.
Response: Thank you, reviewer kind suggestion to improve the quality of the manuscript; the manuscript is revised by the native speaker, and correct all the errors and typo mistakes, as well correct the grammatical mistakes in main document.
Poin Ø Change the citation style in the manuscript according to the journal standard. Follow journal guidelines carefully.
Response: Thank you, reviewer kind suggestion to Change the citation style in the manuscript according to the journal standard, we have modified,
Poin Ø Line: 213-214 correct the sentences. The consequences of CPEC on the Pakistani community have barely been studied. This research includes an inclusive review of the prior literature in two disciplines.
Thank you very much, reviewer kind suggestion to Line: 213-214 correct the sentences, we have done and find the blow.
Since CPEC decided to use this resource strategically, its importance has become increasingly apparent. There is widespread agreement that human resources must demonstrate that a country's development depends its human capital.
Poin Ø Overall whole literature review part should revise carefully, the author should organize systematically, and the flow of ideas and clarity is very important. Authors should discuss previous research work blearily and include the innovation of current research work.
Thank you very much for the reviewer's suggestions to corrected part of literature review. We have modified the systematic literature review and added a figure showing more clearly the CPEC's location according to the reviewer's scholarly suggestions.
CPEC's growth of transportation infrastructure projects has affected local citizens' education. Additionally, officials frequently assess community needs, acceptance, and lifestyle using the outcomes of regional community behavior. The local communities will benefit from and view project development. It is a proven fact that when residents profit from the growth of CPEC projects and see it favorably, they have faith in the CPEC policies and offer more support. So, the current study considers a lot of the regional community's benefit-based approaches and the host community's feelings about CPEC projects will be built.
The CPEC would fund the construction of economic zones alongside it is trade routes, including Khuzdar to Bisma, Gwadar-Hosab, the Karachi to Lahore, and Karakorum motorways as railway lines to link them. This connectivity is intended to guarantee goods access for trades and consumers to enhance domestic business and investment. Railway tracks would also be extended from Karachi-Peshawar to improve connections and expand transportation options. For long-term and medium-term investments, Pakistan has designated nine favorable trade zones. In order to increase Pakistan's exports to international markets, stronger development investments are being made, and a mix of energy technologies is focusing on manufacturing development. This will encourage the expansion of logistics, transportation, and enriched exports from Pakistan. The industrial and infrastructure growth of development parts of the CPEC are developing into an efficient tool for decreasing Pakistan's national debt and improving profitability for repaying CPEC debts [36]. The CPEC infrastructure expansion and concurrent key interconnection have created a more competitive environment for the Central Asian states to interchange and vend their commodities in the international markets. Pakistan wants to travel through Afghanistan to Central.
The goal of the CPEC projects is to promote the growth of economic and free commerce among the two nations. However, that has also led to a significant increase in employment opportunities, worker environmental awareness, social security, educational opportunities, legal risks, assessments of the rule of law, and an improvement in the standard of life for residents, particularly women global outsmart. This research study explores and analyzes the advantages of the CPEC plan and how it affects attitudes toward women's empowerment—considering what we understand about the CPEC.
Poin Ø Line: 318-321 correct the sentences. “The study underscores this disparity in terms of a crucial but frequently disregarded question to look at how CPEC can change the game for Pakistani women. It would either significantly advance the status of women in Pakistan or exacerbate their already precarious position.”
Thank you very much for the reviewer's conformation about line 318-321 and suggestions to make correction of the sentence, the revised version is provided below.
The report emphasizes this disparity in light of an important but largely overlooked issue: how CPEC can alter the playing field for Pakistani women. It would either make a big difference for Pakistani women or make their lives even more dangerous than they are now. As the issue becomes more pertinent to understanding how CPEC may provide this opportunity and close the gap, employee environmental performance becomes more significant to women.
Poin Ø Line 432 and ISIS are just a few examples; please write a complete sentence.
Thank you very much for the reviewer's kind suggestion about Line 432 to re-write a completed sentence the revised version is provided below.
Pakistan has been dealing with a severe issue for almost seven decades, which has compromised its security. Many different militant organizations are operating in Pakistan; Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Baluchistan Liberation Front (BLF), The threat of terrorism has always had an impact on Pakistan's security and stability. Since the start of the Global War on Terror, Pakistan has made significant efforts to curb extremist and terrorist activity (GWOT).
Poin Ø Please rewrite separate Conclusions and Discussion sections.
Thank you for the reviewer's scholarly suggestion, we have separate Conclusions and Discussion sections in main document according reviewer’s suggestions.
We are all grateful for the reviewers' valuable time spent on improving our research work; all of the suggestions and recommendations for the edition were excellent. Thank you once again.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors
Thank you very much for the improvements made to the document, they will be very useful for the readers. There are three points that I think should be clarified because they are still unclear or do not improve the knowledge for the reader.
Point 7. Better than a photograph would be a floor plan of the area, and if possible showing the different phases of the investments.
Point 16. In the subsection 2.5 and 2.6 I don´t understand how percentages higher than 100% can be obtained in the different aspects of the study sample. Please review and/or explain.
Point. 13. A short paragraph should explain the statistical variables to be used (this is the Methods and Materials section) and not the results obtained. In addition, the paragraph should be placed in the text after the paragraph modified as a consequence of point 11.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 round 2 Comments
Dear authors
Thank you very much for the improvements made to the document, they will be very useful for the readers. There are three points that I think should be clarified because they are still unclear or do not improve the knowledge for the reader.
Point 7. Better than a photograph would be a floor plan of the area, and if possible showing the different phases of the investments.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's suggestions. We have explained it thoroughly in response to scholarly comments; the revised version is provided below.
We use imagery to show the port's location: the expanded port is next to a 2,282-acre free trade area in Gwadar that is being designed after China's Special Economic Zones, and primary phases of all CPEC projects are meant to be completed sequentially. The completion dates for CPEC projects with short, medium, and long terms are 2020, 2025, and 2030, respectively. The money was originally intended to be distributed among the projects as depicted. focus on included the starving energy sector and poor transportation infrastructure across Pakistan industrial cooperation, trade, agriculture and socio-economic development, Havelian-Thakot section, 392km Peshawar-Karachi Motorway and Sukkur-Multan section, and Table. 1 also displays the various stages of the investments.
Point 16. In the subsection 2.5 and 2.6 I don´t understand how percentages higher than 100% can be obtained in the different aspects of the study sample. Please review and/or explain.
Response: Thank you very much for helping the reviewer’s revise and modify our manuscript. Concerning tables 2.5 and 2.6.
We have modified tables 2.5 and 2.6. According to the reviewer’s suggestion, please find the correction of the percentage in the main document.
Point. 13. A short paragraph should explain the statistical variables to be used (this is the Methods and Materials section) and not the results obtained. In addition, the paragraph should be placed in the text after the paragraph modified as a consequence of point 11.
Response: Thank you very much for the reviewer's kind suggestion to improve the section of Methods and Materials. we have edited according reviewer’s suggetion
This research is an empirical investigation focused on discovering a negative relationship between Analytical of gender traits, industry type and respondents, Legal Risks (LR), Social Security (SS), and Employee Environmental Awareness (EEA). It will be concluded that LR, SS, and EEA negatively influence the CPEC because of the lack of policy framework developed under the BIT. Furthermore, this research also analyzes that Gender Empowerment Perspective (GEP) negatively moderates the ROL, LR, and SS of CPEC. In contrast, the value of EEA and ROL would be investigated in the presence of the positive GEP. The research is divided into six parts, including an introduction and conclusion, wherefore, following from here, the literature review depicts the gaps and laxity in the research conducted so far, followed by analysis and discussion sections.
Honorable Reviewer
We are all grateful for the reviewers' valuable time spent on improving our research work.
Happy Merry Christmas: Cheers to warm holiday memories and a blessed New Year!
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
