GWADAR - After becoming fully operational, the Gwadar Port and Gwadar Free Zone would generate economic activities of around $10 billion per annum, besides creating thousands of new jobs, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa said on Monday.

“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,” Asim Bawa said while talking to the media here after reviewing the Gwadar Port and other projects under CPEC.  He said, “We will continue to monitor the development work in Gwadar till all the projects become fully operational.”

Asim Bajwa said the port’s infrastructural work had been completed by the China Port Holding Company at the cost of around $300 million, and its all four berths were fully operational. He said 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 24,000 MT of DAP (diammonium phosphate) fertilizer and feed cargo for Afghanistan would arrive here from Australia, he added. 

We will continue to monitor the development work in Gwadar till all the projects become fully operational

They had built the port handling capacity, while the Customs system was also in place to facilitate investors and traders, Asima Bajwa said.

“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. 

As regards the Gwadar Port Free Zone, Asim Bajwa said its first phase spreading over 60 acres of land had already been completed, with 47 enterprises registered. 

Six factories had been completed, three of them were now fully operational, while six others were under construction. 

For the last three years, he said, both the port and free zone had created some 1,200 direct jobs, while 12,000 more persons were hired for building the support infrastructure. 

Asim Bajwa said the second phase of Gwadar Port Free Zone would spread over 2,221 acres of land and Prime Minister Imran Khan would perform its ground breaking.  He said the master plan of Gwadar City had also been approved, and it was now at the implementation stage.

Putting down all the misconceptions about the Gwadar Port, he said it was now a reality, with lot of development work completed, while handling of cargo was underway.

He said the China Port Holding Company had already lined up an investor for the second phase, who would need some 1,600 acres of land. The investor had pledged a direct investment of $3 billion in the single industry that would create 30,000 jobs.