Development projects: Gwadar roads will help curb extremism

Port city has the potential to take the country’s economy to great heights, Hamid said.


APP July 15, 2013
Zahid Hamid.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid has said that the construction of an international-level airport as well as access roads in Gwadar will generate job opportunities to thousands of local people, besides offsetting the rising trend of extremism in the region.

He added that the port city had the potential to take the country’s economy to great heights. He said, “The landmark visit of Pakistani premier to China was significant in more ways than one as the two countries signed eight Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and agreements following the meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Premier Li Keqiang, including Pakistan-China Economic Corridor accord”.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2013.

COMMENTS (2)

Hari Om | 10 years ago | Reply

It is all very well for the Hon’ble Minister to say that thousands of job opportunities will be created. What is however more important is in what time frame will those thousands of job opportunities materialise.

On the above score Gwadar scores particularly poorly. Gwadar which was touted as the next Dubai even today remains sporadically used and that to only for Government imports of fertiliser and wheat which by virtue of being tax payer subsidised need not be particularly scrupulous about being sensitive to freight economics despite the passage of some six and a half years since its inauguration. Hardly the sort of on the ground performance that suggests Gwadar has the potential to create thousands of opportunities within an meaningfully appropriate time frame. Perhaps the only opportunity that Gwadar Port has thrown up is for the Military to gouge the civilian taxpayer in order to provide a bolt hole for the Navy that was as far away from India as Pakistan’s coastline would permit.

Hari Om | 10 years ago | Reply

It is all very well for the Hon’ble Minister to say that thousands of job opportunities will be created. What is however more important is in what time frame will those thousands of job opportunities materialise.

On the above score Gwadar scores particularly poorly. Gwadar which was touted as the next Dubai even today remains sporadically used and that to only for Government imports of fertiliser and wheat which by virtue of being tax payer subsidised need not be particularly scrupulous about being sensitive to freight economics despite the passage of some six and a half years since its inauguration. Hardly the sort of on the ground performance that suggests Gwadar has the potential to create thousands of opportunities within an meaningfully appropriate time frame. Perhaps the only opportunity that Gwadar Port has thrown up is for the Military to gouge the civilian taxpayer in order to provide a bolt hole for the Navy that was as far away from India as Pakistan’s coastline would permit.

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