Port Qasim attracts $1.5b investment, $3b in pipeline

John Thakur Das


Karachi—The Chairman Port Qasim Authority, Vice Admiral Asad Qureshi on Thursday told a visiting Japanese delegation that 1.5 billion US dollar investment has already been made in Port Qasim and 3 billion US Dollars investment is in the pipeline. Extending assurances he said PTA will welcome any foreign investment in the country and will facilitate all such investments in Port Qasim. The delegation evinced keen interest in infrastructure development related projects of PQA.

The current projects undertaken by Port Qasim Authority include deepening of navigational channel to maintain all-water 13.5 meters draught, LPG terminal, textile city, world trade center, waterfronts and Diamond Bar Island City. To promote industrialization, the port has completed a major road network and other projects in Port Qasim industrial area Ninety-one industrial and commercial projects are already operative and 53 units are being constructed.

The share of Port Qasim Authority in sea borne trade increased from 33 percent to more than 42 percent in the financial year 2005-06 As one of the largest revenue source PQA contributed more than 71 Billion rupees in the form of duties and taxes which contribute 10 percent of the total revenue receipts of Pakistan.

The Japanese top ranking engineers were told that cargo handling at PQA touched a threshold of around 2.1 million tonnes despite sizeable decline of Pakistan Steel imports by about 40 percent during 2005-06. Parallel to cargo handling, ship handling at Port Qasim showed a significant increase. Owing to the vibrant policies and proactive strategy of the new management, the port has been able to sustain its share at around 24 million tonnes of cargo with just nine berths during the financial year 2005-6, showing an increase of 11 percent over the preceding year. Berth productivity ratio considerably increased to more than 2.6 million tonnes per berth during the same period.

Elaborating on potential of the port the Vice Admiral said Qasim International Container Terminal has been able to grab the lions share of box trade in the country by handling a record 0.59 million TEUs. In terms of overall imports and exports the former increased by 6 percent while exports showed an exceptional growth of 128 percent during 2005-6.

The four member Japanese delegation from JETRO, JICA, included Mr. Hiroyuki Miyakawa (DG JETRO) Mr. Kokyo Tamaki (Project formation advisor JICA) and two consultants from IDCJ (International Development Center of Japan) Mr. George Terahara and Mr. Shigeki Kawahara visited Port Qasim this afternoon.

http://www.pakobserver.net/200607/07/news/...20in%20pipeline

great news i hope pakistan can build more ports and rely on other ports rather then just karachi. its good to see gwadar getting more important and port qasim attracting more revenue, and other ports being built and becoming more important and gathering revenue for pakistan.