PM’s China visit and Gwadar issue
July 13, 2013
As expected, the Gwadar issue was taken up in a big way during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recent China visit. The prime minister announced signing of an agreement with Beijing over the Gwadar-Kashgar economic corridor and termed it as an important milestone in the history of Pak-China friendship. He said this project would benefit three billion people in the region.
A Chinese expert Gong Yuhe of Zhejiang University’s Asia-Europe Planning and Design Research Institute, while writing for the International Business Daily, recently affirmed: “Gwadar constitutes part of the new silk road, a network of transportation infrastructure that could carry natural resources into China and boost exports from China’s western provinces, headed to Europe, Central Asia, and beyond. The overland route from Gwadar to Kashgar, a major city in Xinjiang province, will allow ships to avoid the costs, delays, and dangers of travelling through the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea to ports on China’s east coast.”
His commentary, whose translation appeared on the internet, noted: “The development of Gwadar port will not only spur Pakistan’s economic expansion but can also, for Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and other Central Asian interior states, provide a shortcut to the sea, becoming these countries’ shipment link to the Indian Ocean and a warehousing and storage hub. At the same time, Gwadar’s development benefits China’s western areas as channel for foreign trade, becoming a maritime exit port for Gansu, Qinghai, and other interior provinces and ensuring the transport safety of China’s energy resources and foreign trade. Gwadar’s strategic value and actual significance cannot be overlooked.”
Understandably, the strategic port offers many major advantages to the Chinese. They can develop an independent land-based oil supply route free of influence of foreign naval powers. Also, they can revive the plan to have an oil refinery, with a total capacity of close to 20 million tonnes per year, in Gwadar linked to Kashgar in western China by a pipeline, thereby bypassing the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea.
The strategically-located Gwadar Port was inaugurated by former president General Pervez Musharraf on March 20, 2007. However, the previous government failed to build and connect the nascent port with the Central Asian Republics and Afghanistan for trade activities due to disputes with the concession holder, the Port Authority of Singapore (PSA).
The project, due to the tussle between the government and the concession holder which had promised to invest $525 million in infrastructure, became a white elephant. During the last five years, no work was carried out to develop the hinterland infrastructure of Gwadar Port.
Bristling with new ideas and commitment, the Chinese are now likely to deliver as per their high reputation. An effective roads and rail network is essential to make the port fully efficient in all respect.At the same time, it is suggested the PML-N government should extend all types of assistance to the Chinese to make the Gwadar project fully successful.
The most important would be provision of security to the Chinese working on the port and improving the law and order situation in Balochistan and elsewhere. All kinds of violence, sectarianism and foreign-funded separatist insurgencies should be curbed with an iron hand.
The government should also ensure that no red-tapism and political wrangling delay the plans of the new concession holders. Moreover, it should educate the Baloch about the economic and social benefits of a fully developed port.
Gwadar presents unlimited scope, strategically and commercially, for both Pakistan and China. In the case of Pakistan, it promises radical reversal of fortunes. Needless to say, it is a game-changer.
A Chinese expert Gong Yuhe of Zhejiang University’s Asia-Europe Planning and Design Research Institute, while writing for the International Business Daily, recently affirmed: “Gwadar constitutes part of the new silk road, a network of transportation infrastructure that could carry natural resources into China and boost exports from China’s western provinces, headed to Europe, Central Asia, and beyond. The overland route from Gwadar to Kashgar, a major city in Xinjiang province, will allow ships to avoid the costs, delays, and dangers of travelling through the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea to ports on China’s east coast.”
His commentary, whose translation appeared on the internet, noted: “The development of Gwadar port will not only spur Pakistan’s economic expansion but can also, for Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and other Central Asian interior states, provide a shortcut to the sea, becoming these countries’ shipment link to the Indian Ocean and a warehousing and storage hub. At the same time, Gwadar’s development benefits China’s western areas as channel for foreign trade, becoming a maritime exit port for Gansu, Qinghai, and other interior provinces and ensuring the transport safety of China’s energy resources and foreign trade. Gwadar’s strategic value and actual significance cannot be overlooked.”
Understandably, the strategic port offers many major advantages to the Chinese. They can develop an independent land-based oil supply route free of influence of foreign naval powers. Also, they can revive the plan to have an oil refinery, with a total capacity of close to 20 million tonnes per year, in Gwadar linked to Kashgar in western China by a pipeline, thereby bypassing the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea.
The strategically-located Gwadar Port was inaugurated by former president General Pervez Musharraf on March 20, 2007. However, the previous government failed to build and connect the nascent port with the Central Asian Republics and Afghanistan for trade activities due to disputes with the concession holder, the Port Authority of Singapore (PSA).
The project, due to the tussle between the government and the concession holder which had promised to invest $525 million in infrastructure, became a white elephant. During the last five years, no work was carried out to develop the hinterland infrastructure of Gwadar Port.
Bristling with new ideas and commitment, the Chinese are now likely to deliver as per their high reputation. An effective roads and rail network is essential to make the port fully efficient in all respect.At the same time, it is suggested the PML-N government should extend all types of assistance to the Chinese to make the Gwadar project fully successful.
The most important would be provision of security to the Chinese working on the port and improving the law and order situation in Balochistan and elsewhere. All kinds of violence, sectarianism and foreign-funded separatist insurgencies should be curbed with an iron hand.
The government should also ensure that no red-tapism and political wrangling delay the plans of the new concession holders. Moreover, it should educate the Baloch about the economic and social benefits of a fully developed port.
Gwadar presents unlimited scope, strategically and commercially, for both Pakistan and China. In the case of Pakistan, it promises radical reversal of fortunes. Needless to say, it is a game-changer.
