QUETTA: Pakistan has handed over 280 hectares of a 923-hectar (2,300-acre) tax-exempt land in Gwadar to China under 43-year lease for development of a special economic zone there.
The development is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an ambitious $46 billion investment plan linking western China to the Arabian Sea, part of Beijing’s ambition to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia while countering US and Indian influence.
Experts say access to the port of Gwadar will cut thousands of kilometres off the distance which oil and gas imports from Africa and the Middle East have to travel to reach China.
Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal and Minister for Shipping Kamran Michael attended the handover ceremony with China’s National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC) Vice Chairman Wang Xiaotao
As part of the wider plans, an international airport will also be built with a Chinese grant at Gwadar, with construction due to begin in January.
“China has asked us to provide land for building an export processing zone and a modern international airport in Gwadar,” Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch told AFP.
The airport which will take 30 months to complete will be Pakistan’s biggest airport. According to Balochistan chief minister’s spokesman Jan Muhammad Buledi, the airport will be built on more than 4,000 acres.
China is also building a road network to link the zone to the airport and a seaport, and the provincial government will provide the land according to their requirements, he said.
As part of the wider plans, work on the Gwadar International Airport would start in the next couple of months.
Gwadar port, located 540 kilometres southwest of Karachi, was built in 2007 with technical help from Beijing as well as Chinese financial assistance of some $248 million.
Speaking on the occasion, Ahsan Iqbal said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be a fate changer for billions of people in the region through regional integration and connectivity.
The minister said the Gwadar Port was being developed under vision of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to develop it as a leading smart port city of the region. He said handing over of first 600 acres of land for Gwadar free zone is a major milestone towards implementation of CPEC.
