Up-gradation of Gwadar Port master plan: government to hire international consultants

The federal government is in the process of hiring international consultants for up-gradation of master plan of Gwadar Port and Gwadar city to carve out special economic zone for foreign investment. Chairman Gwadar Port Authority Dosteen Khan Jamaldini told Business Recorder on Saturday that the Planning Commission, Ports and Shipping Ministry and the authority are all on board to hire the consultants.
"We are expecting that the free economic zone will be operational by October of this year," he said, adding, "we want to use 9.23 square kilometer area of the port for setting up free economic zone and attract foreign investment in different sectors."
Jamaldini said the international consultants would help upgrade building codes, regulations of the port and the city and make it a free economic zone like the port of Dubai that is operating successfully. As per instructions of the Prime Minister, the Gwadar port is being designed to offer exemptions on import and export duty to traders and businessmen as this would not only help improve business and investment but also life standard of the locals, he said.
"At the moment there is no industry in Gwadar and other industrial cities of the country like Faisalabad, Karachi and Gujranwala are far away from the port," he said. Jamaldini said the government is working on two major projects for the area: to enhance road linkages and connectivity of the port with other cities. "Work on two major projects, Gwadar Port East Bay Expressway and New Gwadar Airport, will start this year and would help increase connectivity of the port with other parts of the country," he said.
China is going to invest $1.62 billion on further development of the Gwadar project, which includes construction of the eastern expressway linking the harbor and coastline, the airport and 10 other projects expected to be completed in three to five years.
At present, the only export from Gwadar and some other parts of Balochistan is fish and related items, he said, adding that "if we cannot increase quality and quantity of the export items, then the port may not be as beneficial as it should be."
He said that if all the projects at the port are completed successfully within the given timeframe, then the port may contribute heavily to the country's Gross Domestic Product. "We expect that in the next five to ten years business at the Gwadar port would be contributing around 10 to 15 percent to GDP besides offering jobs to thousands of people," he said. China has won the right to operate the Gwadar port for a period of 40 years and it could be put into full use by this year's end as all infrastructure construction is nearly complete, he said.