-Chairman CPEC Authority says Gwadar’s port, free Zone to generate $10bn annual economic activity
Bureau Report
GWADAR: Chairman Pak-China Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Lieutenant General (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa has said that Gwadar port was fully operational and now the focus is on increasing port traffic.
In Gawadar, Chairman CPEC Authority told the media that the first phase of Gwadar Free Zone covering 60 acres has been completed.
He said that 6 out of 12 factories have been completed while 3 are operational.
Bajwa said that the Gwadar Port and the Gwadar Free Zone would generate economic activities of around $10 billion per annum besides creating thousands of new jobs after becoming fully operational. “Soon after completion of the Gwadar Free Zone, a lot of manufacturing and trading activities will start, cargoes will move, and transshipment activities will increase,” he said while talking to the journalists after reviewing the Gwadar Port and other projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
“We will continue to monitor the development work in Gwadar till all the projects become fully operational,” Asim Bajwa said. He said that the port’s infrastructural work had been completed by the China Port Holding Company at the cost of around $300 million, and it’s all the four berths were fully operational
During the last few months, over 67,000 metric tons of cargo had been handled at the port, comprising consignments mostly under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement, which were later transported to Afghanistan. A vessel carrying 8,000 cubic feet liquefied petroleum gas was due at the port on Tuesday, while another ship with 24,000MT of DAP (diammonium phosphate) fertilizer and feed cargo for Afghanistan would arrive here from Australia, he added. The CPEC Authority chairman said that they had built the port handling capacity, while the customs system was also in place to facilitate the investors and traders. “Now our full emphasis is to increase the port traffic for which we are pursuing the logistic companies to establish their offices in the city,” he said.
