February 15, 2006	Wednesday	Muharram 16, 1427

KARACHI, Feb 14: Ports and shipping experts have recommended development and upgradation of infrastructure at ports to match the demands of the rapidly growing external trade.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day 7th IAPH Asia Oceania Regional Conference hosted by Karachi Port Trust (KPT) on Tuesday, they said that since the Karachi Port would remain “gateway” to South Asia it needed deep draught container terminals and a developed “cargo village” to meet the unprecedented traffic of containerized cargo.

Merijin Zuidgeest, a port engineer of Royal Haskoning, spoke on the need for deep draught berths said that this would help Karachi Port to accommodate large container vessels of post-Panamax category with a capacity up to 600 TEUs. This would not only help the country to save a lot of foreign exchange in freight but also help importers to meet the economies of scale.

This, however, is a capital-intensive project and will initially require huge funds but in the long-run it will pay off by savings in freight charges.

Christopher Grieb from USA deliberated on development of cargo village and stressed that without providing such a facility the traffic of containers could not be cleared on time from the terminal into the backyard.

Therefore, he said it was equally important that a cargo village facility be developed to immediately move the boxes from terminal as it would provide all necessary facilities to port users under one roof.

“A facility like cargo village is available in many large ports of the world but with different names, however, its primary objective is to provide state-of- the-art distribution service for port users,” he added.

The conference was largely attended by delegates from Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, China, Canada, India, Iran, Indonesia, Japan Kuwait, Korea, Maldives, Malaysia, Netherlands, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, and USA.

KPT chairman Vice-Admiral Ahmad Hayat in his welcome address appreciated the International Association of Ports and Harbours for selecting Karachi for this mega event. He said that Pakistan’s economy was booming which reflected the success of the government’s pragmatic fiscal policies.

He said that the Karachi and Qasim ports were experiencing unprecedented cargo growth. The vice-admiral disclosed that in the first six months of this fiscal the KPT had witnessed over 46 per cent growth in dry cargo and 26 per cent in containerized traffic.

Mr Hayat said that the port was making itself responsive to market demands by taking some key capital projects that would help it to regain its niche as a regional hub.

IAPH secretary general Dr Satoshi Inoue and vice-president Datin Paduka Phang in their keynote address praised the arrangements made for holding this mega event.

Ms Phang said that such forums would go a long way in strengthening the global maritime industry to monitor the latest developments across the region through proper vetting of supply and demand. She was of the view that port authorities must adapt to changes quickly to nurture better results.

Ports and shipping secretary Muhammad Zia-ur-Rehman, who was the chief guest on the occasion, read his paper on “Coastal Infrastructure Development.”