The Gwadar conundrum

Inwards investment, stability, developed economy, infrastructure make freeports, we hope that this all materialises.

A glance at a map of Pakistan might suggest to the average person that the port of Gwadar is the right idea in the wrong place. It has poor road links with the rest of the country, no rail link and a vast hinterland to the north that is thinly populated, offering next to nothing by way of market opportunities. That Pakistan would benefit from a blue-water port on the Indian Ocean is beyond doubt, but whether it is ever going to benefit from Gwadar remains a very open question. Any cargo unloaded there needs to make the ruinously expensive road transfer to Karachi, along roads that are poorly constructed and maintained, and vulnerable to attack by terrorists or plain old-fashioned highway robbery. The deal with Singapore to manage the port foundered and it is now to be in large part managed by the Chinese, who bankrolled most of the building anyway. Gwadar is a reality that is not going away and thus receives occasional visits from the great and the good who express their belief that Gwadar is the key to the prosperity and development of Balochistan.

Thus it was that the prime minister paid a visit on April 24, along with the chief of army staff. He spoke of the ‘neglect’ of the project by previous administrations, of the possibility — long mooted — of a rail link to Kashgar in southern China and the creation of a new security force that will be tasked to protect the Chinese workers on several projects in the region. The prime minister announced the building of a 300-bed hospital and a state-of-the-art airport. Gwadar, he said, would be modelled on the freeports exemplified by Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Fine words do not a freeport make. Inwards investment, stability, a developed local economy and reliable infrastructure do and we hope that all materialises. Gwadar remains in large part an unfulfilled dream, for such initiatives would go a long way towards realising Gwadar’s — and indeed Pakistan’s — potential.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2014.

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