12 October 2004	Tuesday	26 Shaban 1425

KARACHI, Oct 11: A leading Korean shipping line, Daeyang Shipping Company, has shown its interest in setting up dry dock at Karachi Port and upcoming Gwadar Port in Balochistan.

The chief executive officer of the Korean firm Y K Chung during a meeting with Director General Ports and Shipping Capt. Anwar Shah at his office here on Monday, said that if needed the company would also consider bringing in floating dock at Gwadar Port.

Heading a 22-member delegation representing the Korean shipping company in different countries, Mr Chung said that he was impressed with the economic growth and stability Pakistan achieved during last couple of years.

He said that his company had an annual turnover of around $1.2 billion with a fleet of over 220 large size merchant vessels. He further said that it was the biggest shipping line involved in the haulage of coal the world over. It was presently building ships of over 200,000 dead weight in China.

The Korean delegation is on a fact-finding mission at the request of its local representative Sea trade Group, which is headed by Muhammad Najib Balagamwala. Last month Mr Balgamawala during his visit to Korea extended an invitation to Mr Chung to expand their operations in Pakistan where a lot of opportunities were coming up particularly in port and shipping sector.

Mr Chung said his company would like to set up dry dock in Karachi and Gwadar but it depended on the outcome of his team's current visit. He also expressed the possibility of having floating dock at Gwadar Port which could be easily withdrawn if needed, but felt that dry dock would be more feasible once the things get mature.

He said that his company would consider to hiring Pakistani crew on its ships so that it could avail the benefits and concessions being offered by the government. Earlier, the DG Ports and Shipping informed the Korean delegation about government policy of allowing 25 per cent concession in wet-charges to those foreign shipping lines who hire 80 per cent Pakistan crew on their ships. Such shipping lines also enjoy free-port charges, which comes to around $60,000 per ship.

Capt Anwar informed the delegation that Pakistan's external trade was expected to grow up to $35 billion in couple of years. Barring a sluggish performance during initial quota-free era starting from January 1, 2005, he said Pakistan's exports would register fast growth and along with it imports would also increase.

He informed the delegation that Pakistan was compliant to all international conventions including ILO, IMO etc. He further said that under Phase II of Gwadar port project such facilities like dry dock or even floating dock will come up.

Similarly other mega projects will be taken up to make the port to have world class facilities and infrastructure. The DG assured the Korean delegation of full support and said that there was consistency in government policies for the last four years, therefore, no fears should be nurtured about change in policies. He informed that perhaps Pakistan was the only country that had 20 per cent IRR (Internal Return Ratio), where as in other countries the average IRR was around 5 per cent.