BEIJING: Liu Hui, deputy general manager of China Linyi Trade City Co, a Chinese company that has been operating in the Gwadar Port Free Zone for many years, said that the Pakistani government had provided numerous preferential policies, including tax-free incentives, to Chinese businesses investing in the port and is very supportive of their efforts.
The Gwadar Port Free Trade Zone was only a concept before 2015. With a combined investment of $420 million from China and Pakistan, the FTZ has attracted about 20 businesses in the banking, insurance, transportation, and food processing industries, creating 1,200 jobs.
Merchandising company China Linyi Trade City Co invested in storing facilities inside the FTZ. Since September 2020, we have fully taken over the warehouse service for the transit trade in fertilizer between Gwadar Port and Afghanistan. By March 2023, it had finished providing storage services for 800,000 tons of fertilizer.
In 2021, our warehouse service encouraged re-export commerce by $60 million, underlining Gwadar Port’s contribution to tying together neighboring landlocked nations, Liu Hui remarked in an interview. The company’s project in the FTZ entails the construction of a commodity display center and a bonded warehouse with diverse uses, including transit trading, bonded storage, and exhibition. She continued, “In December, we will organize the third Gwadar Expo, which will include 15 neighboring nations, including Muslim-majority nations close by and Middle Eastern nations.
The number of permanent residents increased from 80,000 in 2013 to 220,000 in 2023 because of improvements at Gwadar and the surrounding infrastructure. By 2050, the port operator wants to transform Gwadar into a smart port metropolis with a population of over 1.7 million and a $30 billion GDP.
According to Zhang Baozhong, a former chairman of China Overseas Ports Holding Co, the company that runs the Gwadar Port, “the Chinese in Gwadar bathe in the friendship and care of the local people every day; they see Chinese companies as the only hope for Gwadar’s future.” We may gradually expand prosperity by establishing a secure environment for development in specific regions and utilizing these sectors as economic engines.
He says, “It is believed that we can contribute, gradually, to increase the national strength of Pakistan by fostering a secure environment for development in some areas and using these areas as economic locomotives.” —APP
