QUETTA: A delegation of Pakistan including Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Khan Zehri, Gwadar Port Authority Chairman Dostain Jamaldini and other officials visited China for its six-day tour recently, where they inspected different projects in Chinese cities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Beijing.
The visit of Pakistani delegation to China was in the context of China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) which was going to become a game change for the entire region. “The all states of Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, Russian Federation and China itself have been eying on CPEC and Gwadar Deep Sea Port as they have pinned hope on these mega projects for boost of their economy by exports of their products through these channels,” official sources told APP.
The western route of CPEC will be passing through Balochistan to connect China with Gwadar. Now, when China has planned to invest billions of dollars in different sectors, the chief minister drew the Chinese officials’ attention towards investment in different sectors in Balochistan including mines and minerals, energy, fishing, agriculture and livestock as the province was rich in these natural resources.
The chief minister asked the Chinese officials to include Kuchlak-Quetta Mass Transit Train Project in the CPEC. The Chinese officials assured him of extending their full cooperation in this regard. During his visit to Chinese city of Tianjin, Nawab Zehri was taken to steel mills. After inspecting different sections of the mills, he invited Chinese industrialists to invest in Balochistan to establish steel mills in the province.
He told them there was suitable environment for investing in steel production in Balochistan as steel precuts would be directly exported to other countries through Gwadar Deep Sea Port instead bringing them from far flung areas of China to Gwadar.
The Balochistan delegation also visited industrial park in Special Economic Zone in Chinese province, Jiangsu. Singapore and China jointly constructed this industrial park in year 1994 which spread over 280 square kilometer. The delegation was told that last year, the industrial park manufactured products worth $80 billion.
The chief minister urged the Chinese officials to construct Special Economic Zones in Balochistan’s areas including Gwadar, Bostan, Zhob and Khuzdar in connection with CPEC. “CPEC route will pass through Zhob, Bostan and Khuzdar to reach Gwadar, therefore, the Chinese government and industrialists should pay special attention to establish special economic zones in these areas,” he said.
