Gwadar Port has potential to become major shipping hub for region: report

Gwadar Port has potential to become major shipping hub for region: report



Written by pub
Monday, 02 April 2007
WASHINGTON, April 2 (APP): Pakistan’s newly opened Gwadar deep seaport has the potential to become a major shipping hub for regional countries and local fishermen have noticed a rise in their fortunes, according to an American newspaper report. “The deepwater port has the potential to become a major shipping hub for Central Asia and China, particularly for the oil that China is sucking up to fuel its explosive growth,” a report in the Los Angeles Times notes. Gwadar sits close to the entrance to the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.
“Backers of the project entertain visions of Gwadar as a new, more convenient gateway for trade from Chinese and Central Asian markets to points west.”
The Times report also observes that a property boom has hit Gwadar town in southwest Pakistan because of the newly inaugurated port on the Arabian Sea.
Commenting on the importance of the port as facilitating regional trade and energy supplies, the report says Gwadar would provide a more secure corridor for China’s fuel and energy supplies. From Gwadar, imports could travel overland up through Pakistan and into China.
For China, closer access to the sea from its landlocked western territories, where a massive development campaign is underway, can save thousands of miles and days of travel for goods that would otherwise have to exit the country from the east on a much more circuitous route, it adds.
The idea of building a port at Gwadar has floated around in Pakistan for decades and President Pervez Musharraf made a major push to get it done. He inaugurated the port, constructed with Chinese assistance, last month.
Trade out of China’s own restive western region of Xinjiang would also be easier and faster, the report says. The distance from Kashgar, on the edge of Xinjiang, to Gwadar is 1,250 miles, versus twice that distance to reach Shanghai.
The report, which also contemplates strategic importance of the port and local development prospects, says even some local fishermen have noticed a rise in their fortunes.
“When we used to catch fish, there were no takers - we used to throw away half our catch,” 55-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim said as he rolled up his nets.
Recently arrived wholesalers now buy up Ibrahim’s haul and send it off to Karachi. He has made enough money to buy a second boat. And he’s not worried about people moving to Gwadar and joining in the business. “People are coming----but the sea is so big we don’t have a problem with that