ISLAMABAD: With a view to enhancing business-to-business cooperation between Islamabad and Beijing, a Chinese entrepreneur will make an initial investment of $50 million in Gwadar for setting up of an end-to-end supply chain facility for export of seafood to China.

A high-tech processing facility with technology transfer will be set up in the industrial zone of Gwadar for the export of fish from Pakistan to China. The facility will be a large-scale production unit with infrastructure upgrades for high quality processing, associated modern technologies, and robust cold chain logistics.

This will enable the two companies to export in large volumes and empower them to command a premium price.

The project will also include a Chinese customs clearance facility through which all exports to China will get customs clearance while on Pakistani soil in Gwadar. Both companies will work with high-quality wholesalers and use their own cold chain transport for export to China from Gwadar.

The Board of Investment (BoI) facilitated the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Optima Integration Group of China and Asia-Pak Investments of Pakistan in Islamabad on Monday. The Chinese en­eral Administration of Cus­toms has already approved 79 species of fish for export from Pakistan to China.

According to the terms of the agreement, the first phase of investment will create more than 100 jobs in Gwadar and Karachi in the fishing, power and logistics sectors.

In the second phase, the project will first expand from the fishing sector to livestock, commencing with the export of beef and goats to China through cold chain transport, and then scaling with Chinese standard breeding, feedlot operations, vaccinations, track and trace technology, and slaughter and packing facilities at Karachi.

The MoU was signed by Sam Siu, Chairman of Optima Integration Group of China, and Eusha Saleem Bajwa, Chief Executive Officer of Sino Pak Optima Technologies, on behalf of their respective sides.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2022