Federal Textile Minister Mushtaq Ali Cheema on Wednesday has said dry ports always play a vital role in imports and exports' efficiencies of any country and the same has a significant contribution in Pakistan.
He was speaking at a dinner hosted by Faisalabad Dry Port Trust (FDPT) in his honour here at a hotel.
The minister said effective measures were being taken by the government to ensure the handling and clearing of cargo at dry ports (DPs) in the minimum possible time with the ultimate objective to improve their efficiency.
He was of the view that the more time consumption in cargo handling at DPs left bad effects on both imports-exports.
The minister said DPs were established in other cities of Pakistan with the view to reduce the congestion on Karachi Port and for efficient handling of imports-exports.
He noted that development of more DPs had added advantages to the imports and exports of Pakistan to a great extent, and called for developing co-ordination among the concerned stakeholders to improve DPs' efficiency.
The minister said Sialkot DP had got the credit of being the first private sector DP in the country. Later, the course was followed by FDPT, which, he said was the largest DP of the country.
Speaking about FDPT, he said the port was the most beautiful one in Pakistan, which was also a clean and credible from commodity safety point of view, where a single theft complaint was not received so far.
He also said the import duty on trawlers' axle would be lifted or nominal duty would be received, adding the advice had been sent to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in this regard.
The minister also assured support of the government for resolution of the problems being faced by concerned stakeholders at DPs.
Speaking on the occasion, FDPT Chairman Muhammad Siddique Chaudhry highlighted the operations of FDPT, and said FDPT was the biggest one in the country handling over 30,000 Export Cargo Containers and 6,000 Import Consignments per annum, worth about Rs 80,000 million per annum.
He said FDPT was also only one in country duly certified under ISO and had an "Online Tracking System" having linkage with five en route Check Posts and the clients now could track the exact location of their en route Cargo by using website "www.faisalabaddryport.com".
Siddique said the FDPT was also signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Pakistan Railways very shortly to run a weekly "Special Round-Trip Cargo Train" between Faisalabad-Karachi.
Among other notables, FDPT Chairman Muhammad Siddique Chaudhry and All Pakistan Shipping Association Chairman Sohail Shams were also present.
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