Cabinet hands over Gwadar Port to China

Cabinet hands over Gwadar Port to China

* Approves government-to-government cooperation agreement with Iran on gas pipeline

By Sajid Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Wednesday approved a deal transferring control of Gwadar Port from Singapore to China.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told newsmen that Singapore’s Port Singapore Authority (PSA) International could not develop the Gwadar Port, and expressed the hope that after its transfer to China it would better contribute to Pakistan’s deteriorating economy. Singapore’s PSA International began running the port five years ago under a contract valid for up to 40 years, but has decided to withdraw from it.

According to detailed reports, the government of Pakistan reached a decision to hand over the Gwadar Port to China when the PSA decided to leave it due to non-handing over of allocated land required by the Authority for making the port fully operational. However, Kaira said that the PSA International could not operate Gwadar port, therefore the government had to transfer it from Singapore to China.

“The Chinese will make more investments to make the project operational,” Kaira said, adding that the “cabinet has approved transferring port from PSA to a Chinese company, whereas PSA have decided to leave the port at Gwadar”. The minister said that both the companies have settled their deal, but did not give a timetable for the transfer. Gwadar Port, for which China provided about 75 percent of the initial $250 million, is close to the Pakistan-Iran border and the Strait of Hormuz.

The cabinet also approved government-to-government cooperation agreement with Iran on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work along with financing for the Pakistan segment of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. A committee consisting of ministers for finance, law and justice, petroleum and national resources and State Bank of Pakistan governor was formed to further analyse the project.

The committee would explore possibilities to arrange funding for the project. The information minister said that the cabinet considered, discussed and accorded approval to the Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2012-15 (STPF-2012-15) and the Commerce Ministry would hold a briefing on Thursday (today) about the various aspects of the policy.

The cabinet also approved Ombudsman Institutional Reforms Bill 2013 subject to vetting by the Ministry of Law to provide speedy justice to the people. The law will now be placed before parliament for approval. The tenure of the office of federal ombudsmen would be four years, and all the public sector organisations would be bound to reply to it within fifteen days.

The cabinet granted approval, in principle, to start negotiations on an MoU to establish sister cities relationship between Tunis and Islamabad. It also okayed signing of an MoU on cooperation for environmental protection with the government of Republic of Korea. Negotiations for an MoU between the governments of Philippines and Pakistan for Defence cooperation were also approved. The cabinet sanctioned signing of negotiated draft visa abolition agreement between the governments of Pakistan and Jordan for the holders of diplomatic and official passports. It also accorded its approval, in principle, to start negotiations for visa abolition agreement between the governments of Pakistan and Tanzania for the holders of diplomatic and official passports.

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Cabinet hands over Gwadar Port to China