Gwadar port: geoeconomics salience

Hammerhead shaped piece of real estate, protruding out to the Arabian Sea, once owned by Oman for 174 years and purchased by Pakistan in 1958 was a sleepy fishing village. Not anymore! This enclave has transformed into geoeconomics giant. That is, Gwadar largest deep water port in the world:

Located in the north-west most coast close to Iran is the gateway for the flagship BRI project for China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). After a long slumber since changing hands, its geoeconomics potential was recognised by Pakistan’s colourful military strategist General Pervez Musharraf in 1988. Financial constraints bogged down the development although Singapore Port Authority who managed the port did lot to improve it under their watch between 1988 till 2012. In 2013 management contract was awarded to China Overseas Port Holding Company for a lease up to 43 years. The crunch time came when both China and Pak after negotiation included Gwadar as part of CPEC.

The major geoeconomics salience is, Gwadar is not a stand-alone port development project but a multi-purpose one connecting the network of several economic activities envisaged in the CPEC.  Developing the adjacent land of nearly 22,000 acres is dedicated as Special Economic Zone (SEZ) mirrored on Shenzhen in China. By the way, when Shenzhen was inaugurated way back it had a meagre population of just 30,000 people that shot up to 10 million now and accounting for a humongous 300 US$ Billions of GDP for China. The ecosystem proposed in Gwadar is similar to that of Shenzhen in the restive province of Baloch.

That begs the question of Baluchistan development too. An ambitious programme is chalked out to involve disgruntled population by uplifting their living standards via imparting techno skills and employing them in the proposed factories that are to be built within SEZ. A de-salinization plant is provided in-situ to lessen the effects of perennial water shortage that bedevil Baloch for decades. Moreover, a floating liquefied natural gas plant is constructed to supply households with their domestic requirements. Need for people to people connectivity is not lost on the planners. The Makaran highway connecting Karachi to Gwadar would be further improved. 

Jumping from micro to macro, international dimension of Gwadar is spell bound, to say the least. Ordinarily, Chinese vessels had to travel to Persian Gulf to collect their petroleum supply for almost 45 days, traversing a distance of 13,000 kilometres. When Gwadar is fully operational, the sea and land distance would be reduced to 8,500 km with a time span of 15 days. China is planning to import 20% of her hydrocarbon requirements via the Gwadar Kashgar pipeline that would be part of the CPEC. More are on the way to supplement transportation. Gwadar Kashgar Railway is to run 1872 km at a speed of 200 km per hour. In addition to existing road network Gwadar Kashgar road of 1224 km would be built.

All these appear mundane stuff and at first sight relates to China & Pakistan. Not at all. A global transit hub is proposed to be built in Gwadar connecting Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia where in addition to cargo travel & tourism are to be given a shot in the arm. Here comes the arithmetic. The present handling of ships around 20,000 tonne is to be enhanced to ships with dead weight of 70,000 tonnes. Nine multi-purpose berths are to be constructed along 3.2 km of the Gwadar east of the present berths that could handle 400 million tonnes of cargo per diem. An international airport is built closer to the Gwadar part that would handle even trans-Atlantic flights to and fro Pakistan.

In sum. Pakistan has arrived at the international arena of geoeconomics as a hub, transit, pivot and finally strategic gateway for east & west thanks to China. Modern Silk Route, perhaps you might call it!

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist