Pakistan has stepped up efforts to position itself as a regional logistics and transit hub and in this backdrop Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry chaired a meeting on Friday to map out priority infrastructure projects linking the Middle East, Central Asia, China and beyond.
He urged senior officials from key ministries and state institutions to identify projects for rapid funding, propose regulatory reforms and strengthen trade and transport corridors. He also announced the creation of a joint working group by bringing together maritime, communications, railways and defence ministries to produce a short list of workable projects in its first meeting next week.
Discussions focused on integrating Karachi Port, Port Qasim and Gwadar Port with regional transport corridors through rail, road and air networks.
Junaid Anwar underlined the importance of the long-delayed ML-I railway project, which was expected to boost freight and passenger traffic from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to southern ports. He stressed that Pakistan must match its development agenda with the connectivity needs of partner countries.
"We are not merely compiling lists of projects; we are shaping a national roadmap for logistics and connectivity," he said, stressing that ports, shipping, aviation, IT systems, energy logistics and trade facilitation must all be factored into the plan. "Pakistan performs best under compressed timelines and this is one such moment."
Technical Adviser for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Jawad Akhtar proposed new projects with Saudi Arabia, including the Karachi-KSA and Gwadar-KSA Gateway Terminals, expansion of Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) fleet in partnership with Riyadh, starting direct shipping lines from Karachi to Jeddah and Gwadar to Dammam, and establishing 20 green ship recycling yards at Gadani.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ