The government is going to announce a 'new shipping policy' in budget, which would be more attractive for ship-owners and help grab potential foreign investment for the country.
This was stated by the Minister of Ports and Shipping, Senator Babar Khan Ghauri, in an address to mark the one-millionth container handling at the Karachi Port here on Thursday.
He further said that the shipping policy has been designed after detailed discussions and suggestions from the leading Pakistani ship-owners operating their companies' abroad.
In this regard, the government will definitely provide the ship-owners legal cover to there ownership as in the past, the government had taken over shipping companies that damaged the maritime sector of the country. Babar Ghauri said, the new policy would attract potential foreign investment and help gain momentum in the shipping sector.
He said, the government would take a decision regarding a suitable foreign port operator at Gwadar Port. In this connection, a meeting would be held in Islamabad on Saturday to discussed possibilities of given the entire port operation of Gwadar Port. But there are some other issues relating to communication to and from the port, which includes roads, rail-track and proper back-up area, he pointed out.
Pakistan joins the million-club in handling of containers in a period of 11 months, he said, adding, "The TEUs handling would touch 1.1 million by end of this fiscal year".
"We are going to further increase the throughput of Twenty Equivalent Unit (TEUs), at the Karachi Port". In this regard, "Our existing ports should be modernise at par with other facilities in the world", he said, adding, "the draft of Karachi Port would be increased to 18-metres to accommodate larger ships."
In his address, The General Manager Operations of KPT, Rear Admiral Agha Danish said, the government's new initiative for the development of an efficient North South corridor within the country for trade beyond our Northern borders will be putting pressures on our ports in the near future.
The ports also expect cargo-handling pressure, after Pakistan and India have agreed to open direct shipping routes. The formal agreement is yet to come about, but all the requisite understandings are in place. The trade between both the countries will soon see significant growth, he added.
He said, the globalisation is gaining momentum and the world sea-borne trade, which was 6.7 billion tonnes in 2004 has reached over 7 billion tonnes in 2005. The container throughput also increased from 360 million TEUs in 2004 to 400 million and is expected to grow between 450 to 490 million TEUs in next few years, with the largest growth being projected in the Asian continent.
The Karachi Port also registering unprecedented windfall in cargo growth, The port have seen dry cargo grow by over 36 percent and the container traffic by up by more than 24 percent during current financial year.
The annual growth of dry cargo over past two years was two percent, but this year it has jumped to five percent.
It is planning for the expansion of road links through the city, enhancement of safety and security, development of port information technology (IT) systems. He said, "We are reconstructing KPT's existing berth No 14 to 17 to a draft of 16-metre.
The port also is developing 10 deep draft berths for handling containers at Keamari Groyne Area. These berths will have a depth of 18 metres, with 600 metres channel and over 3.5-KM quay wall. This will be one of the most modern container terminals.
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