KARACHI – Data provided by the Ports and Shipping Division revealed that Gwadar will be declared a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) covering city of Gwadar and industrial areas soon for a period of 20 to 30 years in order to facilitate rapid commercial and economic uplift.
The data showed the specific incentive-regime is expected to include general tax-holidays, no VAT and generous incentives pertaining to business ownership. The government has already started working on this proposal.
The data said Gwadar Port was completed in 2006 at a total cost of US $ 288 million and in 2007 the port operations were handed over to PSA International, a subsidiary of Port of Singapore Authority. Since designation as China’s first SEZ in 1979, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution from industry sector grew from 14pc to 44pc, over a period 26 years.
The plan is aimed to accelerate economic development and investments, both foreign and local, in general. This in turn will spur industrial development and port traffic throughput demand. The data further revealed that the concept of SEZ had yielded positive results around the world (particularly in China and other South East Asian and Gulf countries) with respect to accelerating local broad-based economic development.
