KARACHI: The Sindh government has finalised a plan to establish a China-Pakistan Industrial Zone (CPIZ) in Dhabeji and to develop the Keti Bunder port project to attract Chinese investors and promote trade through sea and land routes.

The Keti Bunder project would be taken up for its inclusion in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s projects at the next meeting of the joint cooperation committee (JCC) scheduled to be held next month in China.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah told a Chinese delegation, led by Ambassador Sun Weidong, on Tuesday that he had allocated land at Dhabeji to establish the industrial zone.

The area was close to Karachi as well as the proposed project of Keti Bunder and would make trade through sea and land routes easy, he added.

The Chinese envoy assured the CM of his support and asked him to provide details of the project beforehand, saying he would support him because “you are dynamic, hardworking and visionary”.

Explaining the measures so far taken to include the Keti Bunder project as part of the CPEC projects, the CM said that his team had recently visited China to attend an important transport-related meeting.

They pleaded the case of Keti Bunder in the follow-up meetings and now it had been included in the minutes of the meeting which meant the proposal of the project had been made official, he added.

“I have already directed my team to prepare a detailed feasibility report of Keti Bunder and prepare it as a commercial project to present it at the CPEC’s joint cooperation committee meeting next month in China,” he said, hoping that with the support of the Chinese ambassador the project would be included in the CPEC.

Giving details of the Keti Bunder project, the chief minister said there would be a jetty to export coal and in the first phase coal-fired power plant(s) would also be installed there.

“A power plant needs fresh water which is not available at the Thar coalfield. Fresh water is available at Keti Bunder and power generation would not be a problem there,” he said. “A railway line from Keti Bunder to the Thar coalfield would be laid to transport coal from Thar for power plant and export.”

The chief minister also briefed the delegation on the second phase of the project in which a fully fledged seaport would be established to trade with other countries.

Talking about the China-Pakistan Industrial Zone, he said that he was keen to take it up in the CPEC so that its infrastructure could be developed. “The areas between Gharo and Dhabeji are an ideal place for industrial development as it connects through road network and sea routes.”

Chinese Consul General Wang Yu, Deputy Consul General Mu Yongpend, Ministers Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, acting Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Energy Secretary Agha Wasif and others were also present.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2016