A test for stakeholders to make Gwadar a victorious economic city

ISLAMABAD: Gwadar, a vital division of massive China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, is a test for the stakeholders to develop it as a successful economic city for the associating countries.

Naveed Iftikhar, an expert consultant in Ministry of Finance addressed a seminar on “The international and urban design of Gwadar city” in which he presented his findings in a detailed research on Gwadar a key component of CPEC.

According to his findings, the stakeholders do not simply set up Gwadar as a port, but has termed it as an economic city. It is the 9th largest region of the country in terms of area with over a population of 100,000 in the city.

He said, “Every local activity is linked with port while its development is linked with the city’s prosperity.” Furthermore, there are frequent instances in the world where new economic cities have proved themselves as a complete disappointment, since they are considered globally as start-ups.

He also added, “Gwadar port is the flagship project of CPEC as all economic activities practically converge at the port. The strong management and authority is a helping hand to trounce the existing ineffectiveness at the part of public institutions. The public authorities were competently working on the port while no work was done for the strengthening the city.”

He suggested that the government should bring in exclusive managerial classifications and approach to manage the intimidating chore of skilled handling of enormous trade protuberance in the district.

Amer Zafar Durrani, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said, “Gwadar as a rising metropolis, necessitate a well-organized authority arrangement while the government shall visit the port and take precautionary measures to eliminate superfluous administration arrangement.

Accroding to his suggestion, the government should procure the entire land in Gwadar and lease it as per law for 33 years to turn down the speculated and self-proclaimed real estate activities.

A council, he said, should be formed without any delay with all concerned on board to make the mega project a success.

Associate Professor International Relations, Bahria University, Adam Saud said, there is no doubt in the fact that Gwadar needs clarity of governance as it is important for the country’s future.

Saud said Chabahar and Gwadar are thought to be competitors, however, in future, both of them would complement each other contributing to explore broader outlook of the Chinese Belt Road Initiative (BRI).

The stability in Afghanistan and Balochistan are of utmost importance to get central Asian states, Russia, Iran and other regional players to benefit the CPEC project.

“It is evident that no development can be assumed without enhanced infrastructure as in Pakistan transportation infrastructure needs improvement”, he said.