ISLAMABAD: The region needs Gwadar Port as it will help save significant shipment time and billions of dollars in freight saving; this was echoed by top government officials and industry experts at a one-day conference in Dubai.
Addressing the `Investing in Gwadar' conference, they emphasised that it's not just a port, it is global necessity. Future global shipping chain will not be completed without Gwadar, they claimed, and added: "The potential is tremendous and a lot of opportunities as well" Khaleej Times reported Thursday.
The conference was organised by Academy & Finance. Pakistani rulers were always conscious of the potential and necessity of Gwadar as an alternative port to Karachi.
The first phase of the port was constructed in record time by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and completed by the end of 2005.
The port operations contract was then awarded, after international bidding, to PSA Gwadar and then `Concessional Rights' were finally transferred to China Overseas Port Holding Company in 2013.
The conference chairman and president of Washington-based GWEST, Paul Michael Wihbey, said: "We are looking at a window of opportunity.
"Talking about the Gwadar Port potentials, Gwadar Development Authority director general, Dr Sajjad H Baloch, said that it is a gateway of China-Pakistan economic corridor and strategically located near the Strait of Hormuz.
It provides the closest access for Middle East oil & gas to Western China, he said, adding that it is a transshipment hub for heavy ships.
It also has transit trade potential for heavy ships, and the potential to create two million jobs. A senior researcher, Dr Azhar Ahmad, said that in the long-term Gwadar port is likely to earn enormous revenues for the province and the country by providing transit and transshipment facilities to a number of countries.
It is the shortest and most feasible route to the sea for most Central Asian countries, Afghanistan and for parts of Russia, Dr Ahmad added.
China is the second biggest economy end of this decade. A portion of China's transit trade through the Gwadar-Kashgar corridor could generate substantial economic activity for the whole province.
The revenues will not only be generated by transit fees alone, but innumerable employment and business opportunities will be created along the corridor.
Needless to say that once there is a road/rail and trade caravans moving over it, it automatically produces a number of opportunities.
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