Pakistan Mulls building trade, energy corridor for China - China Daily


Pakistan wants to act as a transit facility giving China access to Central Asian markets and energy sources, said visiting President Pervez Musharraf.

"We are interested in setting up a trade and energy corridor for China," he told China Daily in an exclusive interview

He was referring to Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea coast in the Pakistani province of Balochistan through which crude oil imports from Iran and Africa can be transported to Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region by land.

Musharraf said the route on which a feasibility study is being conducted is a shortcut compared with the one via the Straits of Malacca.

The port is strategically located as it is quite near the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world's oil passes, he noted.

China contributed about US$200 million for the construction of the port's first phase, which was completed last April when Premier Wen Jiabao visited Pakistan.

It is reported that China will also finance the second phase, which will have nine more berths, an approach channel and storage terminals.

Musharraf said he is looking forward to the result of the feasibility study on transporting crude oil via mountainous regions in Pakistan; and suggested that building a railway was an option.

"We should look at the issue with strategic vision," he said.

Although the proposed pipeline is not a project that can be launched soon, it could work well in the long run, said Sun Shihai, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"It will help maintain peace and stability in the region when the commercial interests of China, Pakistan and a third country are involved," he said.

Musharraf, who arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a five-day visit, is also seeking Chinese help in developing nuclear energy.

China helped its traditional friend set up the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Phase I; and building on the 300-megawatt Phase II started recently.

Pakistan, whose nuclear-power capacity is 437 megawatts, plans to increase the figure to 8,500 megawatts by 2030.

On bilateral relations, Musharraf said his latest visit to China has brought him closer to the Chinese leadership.

Talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao were extended by half an hour on Monday, following which 13 bilateral agreements were signed on military, trade and agricultural co-operation.

Apart from Hu, Musharraf also held talks with top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao.

During his tour to Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Musharraf will visit some national defence industries apart from seeing giant pandas. The two countries are jointly building JF-17 Thunder fighter jets.

On the launch of his Chinese-language biography in Beijing on Monday, Musharraf said he felt "greatly honoured and flattered to have a Chinese author write about my life."

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This exactly the thing we need, with Pakistan and China joining forces together and building economic and social relations with Iran, Afghanistan, Middle East and the Central Asian States. Strategically Pakistan should be diverting its attention in this area, as the more joint cooperation with China, the more benificial for all the participating parties.

Ofcourse all this and minus that retarded india, would be a near perfect strategy i invision for Pakistan. We do not need to trade with this gutter-hole people call india. We need to look the other way and ignore these filthy rats. Let them have their own economic stability and we have ours without them involved anything even close to Pakistan!

Finally two years of lobbying pay off, , I have been callig for this for ages as have so many other's on this forum

This should be a major boost to unskilled and semi-skilled labour in our country as it will be handling the "actual transport business of china"
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for those who don't grasp the signifigance, It's like Pakistan taking at least 10% of all chinese shipping from the mid east to china, at first and then growing each year, a growing industry for pakistan

also this will force a modern passenger and cargo rail system as well as speed up the highway system from karachi to peshawar (peshawar to faislabad is done, the rest needs to be sped up)

Now I hope that the govt keeps pushing this proposed energy corridor proposal to China, Saudi Arabia, CARs and Iran. The Saudi King has apparently accepted the proposal. But it would be a big challenge for our govt to materialize this project.

But I think even if by 2020 Pakistan govt is successful in facilitating an agreement between the Gulf-China, Iran-China energy corriodor and the GOP is able to build a fast and modern North South transport infrastucture. Then that would be a big success for Pakistan.

Ultimately, Pakistan is the best trade route like it has always been historically. so we must capitalize on it.

China and Iran have signed huge deals
China imports Gulf Arab Oil
Many pipelines are already comming to Gwadar

The Pipelines or Oil carrying trains would be full, all pakistan has to do is get the infastructure online ASAP to reap the benefits

More the reason for us to stamp out any foriegn elements that are involved in inciting this bugti terrorism.

more reasons to get the issue resolved, with dialogue between the federal government and the government of baluchistan (the elected representatives of the province)

if it is a matter of unpaid royalites, then the governmnet should pay it, if the baluchi's legitamitely deserve it based on an agreement
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in stability in the province would be counter-productive, as we would still have to deal wit the issue. so considering the government has the other hand, it should be the big man, and negociate

somthing fair for both sides, and the federal govenment should put in safeguards to keep the federal govenment doing fair buisness with the province, as well as stopping criminal use of force by any party

Its time that GOP put its foot down. How many more pipelines are going to be blown up and how long this wadairaism will continue. Pakistani constituition doesn't allow any private armies and/or wadaira system.

So I think the govt needs to come down hard on such elements and eliminate them for good without thinking about what it looks to the outside world. The outside world look down upon us eitherway with having lawless wadairas as well as the govt not being able to implement its own law of the land.

Dizasta I respect your opinion but on a purely economic basis I disagree with you. if there is money to be made by pakistani companies in trading with India then why stop them from trading? similarly if they produce something that we don't (better movies maybe?! regardless of yours or my opinion they are popular in pakistan) then why not let these things be imported so that govt can earn proper import revenue on them and more importantly ppl can get what they want...

the worst thing, i feel, that we can do is to stop trading with another country on political basis. particularly if there is much mutual benefit that can come from it.

I also agree that this now places a greater emphasis on stabilisation in Balochistan.

faz101.

Faz Brotheman, As always i read my coutrymens reply with great intent and respect! And thats alright if you disagree with because thats the beauty of intelligent people.

Lemme surprise you by saying that I would be all for trading with india. No matter how repulsive and disgusting that thought would sound to me! But yes, do trade with india! Why not, when there is an economy which provides Pakistanis to exploit their 300 million middle class market. We would make a killing out of it.

Now I'm sure I've managed to baffle you out of your wits when you've seen what've just said. But now comes the hard part of explaining the counter productive aspect of trading with india, at present!

Right now, Pakistan has no proper Immigration and Neutralization System in place to stamp out any illegal immigrants (this will be a problem once the economy goes into cruise control). Niether does Pakistan have an effective trade and tarrifs enforcement and monitoring system in place. Nor is there an Import/Export regulatory force to keep a check on what comes in and what goes out.

We have a corrupt customs services and actually no existing coast guard! We have tons of weapons, drugs, cars and other products that are constantly being smuggled from Afghanistan, Iran and the Emirates.

So what assurance do we have that there wouldn't be indians who can come into Pakistan. Get Pakistani Passports, buy Pakistani Property and start doing with india in favor for india!

Do you catch my drift buddy!?

You cannot jump in the sea before you learn how to swim! In our case, trading and exploiting with this cunniving, sadistic, degenerate, inbred, gutter neighbor. Would prove disasterous, without proper Law Enforcement Organisations like Immigration and Neutralization, Coast Guard, Customs (ones who don't sell out their country for a meagre amount of money)!!

So you see Faz, your brother Dizasta is not a raging, gun slingin, indian hater! I may be a rugged, brickheaded Pukhtun, but i still see the intricate balances that are benificial or harmful for Pakistan!

I think the current govt policy towards business with India is perfect. No large scale business or trade deals until Kashmir and other major issues are resolved.

Its a matter of principles and we have them.

Maybe if the jahil mullah (wannabe al Qaeda) type stop killing innocent Chinese (here to help Pak) ......... maybe then all this work will bare fruit

Just a thought