GILGIT, July 4: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that the Karakoram Highway will be linked to the southern Gwadar port in Balochistan. He was addressing a ceremony marking the inauguration of a dry port in the border town of Sust, 200km north of Gilgit, on Tuesday.

The dry port, a Pakistan-China joint venture, was built in 2,004 at a cost of Rs90m to streamline border trade between the two countries.

The president said that a rail link between Pakistan and China would be another landmark in the Pakistan-China friendship.

He said that an oil pipeline from the Middle East to western China would be laid via Balochistan and a gas pipeline from Central Asia to Pakistan through the Northern Areas was also under consideration.

Earlier, Northern Areas Deputy Chief Executive and Chairman of the dry port Mir Ghazanfar Ali Khan said that tax on border trade should be withdrawn and three per cent of the income of the dry port should be spent on development of the area.

He also demanded withdrawal of development cess levied on goods import by the NWFP government in the name of the Kohistan Development Fund.

Federal ministers Nilofer Bakhtiar, Amanullah Jadoon, Sher Afgan Niazi and Dr Gulab Jamal, adviser to the prime minister on economic affairs Salman Shah, Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and General Secretary Mushahid Hussain attended the ceremony.

APP adds: The president said that the dry port would bolster commerce with China to new levels and help in realising Pakistan’s potential as the hub of regional trade.

“This landmark project is poised to give further depth and strength to Pakistan-China economic and political ties and help expand Pakistan’s commercial linkages with the regional countries, including Central Asia states”, he said.

President Musharraf spoke of Pakistan’s central geo-strategic location at the heart of the regions, which includes western China, Central Asian states, Afghanistan, Iran, India and the oil-rich Gulf, and envisioned a pivotal role for Pakistan in augmenting trade among them.

“Such is Pakistan’s geo-strategic strength. It would play a vital role in promoting trade among the members of major regional groupings, including Saarc, Economic Cooperation Organisation and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Trade interaction among the region’s countries has to take place through Pakistan.”

Dwelling on the importance of the 10,000-foot high Sust Dry Port, he said the state-of-the-art facility, an elaborate network of infrastructure being put in place across Pakistan and improvement in Karakoram Highway would provide China the shortest access to the Middle East and other world markets through Pakistani deep sea ports, including Gwadar.

Pakistan, he said, would become a trade and energy corridor for China and landlocked Central Asian countries.

“We are talking of Pakistan-China inter-connectivity in terms of energy and trade, improvement in the highway, development of railway link and gas and oil pipeline linkages and even fibre optic connectivity along the highway under one project.”

The president said the highway had been hailed as the eighth wonder of the world and added: “We are capable of creating ninth and 10th wonders in the form of railway and (oil/gas) pipeline linkages between Pakistan and China.”

He also referred to the strengthening of quadrilateral arrangement between Pakistan, China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/07/05/top1.htm

Very good news, I think Pakistan should extend its netwrok of expressways to Central Asia and a duel rail link to follow. After that concentrate on gas and oil pipelines to Pakistan and China and then increase trade with Iran. There is a massive population in the area with a growing middleclass we should utlize the potential.

Pakistan should wait a little for Central Asia to grow, before making expressways. Shouldn't build too much, too early. Only adds to the expenses.

saamp i am aggred with u bcoz pakistan is going to get no profit with this or a little profit, but countries pakistan and bangladesh are just a part of china stratagy to contain india in asia have you heard about "pearl string programme of china " you will know the truth behind it, it will be better if pakistan understands the politics behind it.
the story of two monkeys(india, pakistan) fighting for bread an the cat(china) gets it, it same as that...

Pakistan needs to build road/rail networks to Central Asia as quick as it can. These infrastructures take years to build and once built can have a multiplying effect in terms of economic growth in the region.

Karakorum highway dualization is a welcome step. Connecting coastal highway up north to Quetta to Peshawar then onwards to KKH is a very good idea. Further connecting these road networks to the openings we have with Afghanistan and Iran. Same with rail.

Anyone has a picture of Pakistani map with the future road/rail networks that would be built?

My friend the key to a economy is infrastructure it is like the blood line for the whole country, without it the economy cant grow. We must make expressways as fast as we can because otherwise the economic growth per year will fall, its just like energy supply lower energy supply lower industrail output lower export hence lower growth rate.

Right now Central Asia is taking off, Kazak-China trade is $6 billion and they have alot of dry ports at thier borders, we need to capitalize on this.

Yup, the Kazak/China oil pipeline has been in operation and is expected to pump up to 20 million tonne of oil each year. Today almost 50% of Russian oil export to China (from fields on Caspian Sea) uses this pipeline. Kazakhstan is collecting so much transit fee (or usage fee) and loyalties that they don't know what to do with the money. Trade between the two countries could be double and re-double within the next decade.
So, it wasn't surprising that Russia finally agreed to build the trans-Siberian oil pipeline and two gas pipelines when Putin visited China last March.

The rail-link is what we should be concentrating on right now. A direct highway link to Central Asia is unnecessary, for the time being.

Its the Kazak-China trade which is $6b , not the Kazak-Pak trade. When Pakistan starts to reach that mark, then we can start building the highway.

China to start renovation of KKH by end of October

BEIJING, July 8 (APP): The China Road and Bridge Corp., a state-owned construction firm, has singed an agreement with the Pakistani highway administration to initiate the renovation project of the Karakoram Highway.

Sources with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said Saturday that the agreement will pave the way for practical operation of the project.

According to the agreement, the China Road and Bridge Corp. will be in charge of the design and reconstruction of the highway as the general contractor. At the first stage, the 335-kilometre road between the Raikot bridge to the Khunjerab mountain pass will be rebuilt and upgraded.

The two sides agreed to complete the drawing of the blue print, listing the work items and signing commercial contracts by the end of October, and try to start working by the end of the year.

The Karakoram Highway is the only overland connection between China and Pakistan at present. The 809-kilometre highway, whose location is 600 to 4,700 metres above sea level, was built in 1978 for special geopolitical reasons. It is largely broken due to lack of maintenance and the earthquake in late 2005.

During President Pervez Musharraf's visit to China in February, the two sides had reached an agreement in principle to upgrade the Karakoram Highway.

According to the SASAC sources, width of the highway will be expanded from 10 metres to 30 metres, and its transport capacity will be enhanced three times. Heavy-laden vehicles will be able to run on the road after the upgradation.




http://www.app.com.pk/n69.htm

Late but its never too late to build the infrastructure of the country. These days, all the business activities depend on the highways, roadways or information highways. These things should have been started long time ago. I remember seeing a manhole cover in Toronto with the year 1928 on it. So we can imagine that the people in these western countries not only build the infrastructure for today, but also for the centuries to come. One more thing, I believe that the FWO(Frontier Works Organization) can do a fantastic job if any assigned to it. Their engineers have the abilities and know how and they are dedicated Pakistani souls. We should trust them with our major projects.

ITS A GOOD NEWS THAT DESPITE OF US PRESSURE WE ARE JOINING CHINA AND THIS IS GOOD FOR OUR NATIONAL INTEGRITY AND ALSO GOOD FOR CHINA. AGAIN PAKISTAN IS PLAYING VITAL ROLE IN MAKING OF ANOTHER WORLD POWER AS PAKISTAN HAD PLAYED IN MAKING OF US. BUT THIS TIME PAKISTAN IS PLAYING HER CARDS GOOD.
AND INSHALLAH ONCE THESE MEGA PROJECTS WILL COMPLETE THESE REGIONAL (BUGTIS, SARDARS )WILL DIE BY THEIR OWN.
NOW MUSHI SHOULD ALSO GIVE SOME ATTENTION TOWARDS INTERNAL AFFAIRS. LIKE CORRUPTION N LAW N ORDER.

The Highway link should have been made like 10 years ago, we are already late.

KKH needs to be 4 laned atleast. 2 each way.

The highway suffers frequent land slides so we need something to protect against this phenomena. The Koreans have made great strides in this respect.