ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad on Friday witnessed the signing ceremony for the establishment of liquid cargo terminal at Port Qasim on BOT basis.

The signing ceremony was held between Felda Group of Malaysia and Westbury Pakistan here at a local hotel. Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Aziz, Minister for Information and Media Development Nisar Memon, Minister for Communication Javed Ashraf Qazi were also present on the occasion.

The Felda Group was represented by its Chairman Tan Sri Dr. Muhammad Yousaf Noor and the Westbury Group by its Chairman Muhammad Bashir Janmohammad. The agreement was signed by Tan Sri Dr. Muhammad Yousaf Noor, Chairman Felda Group and Rear Admiral Sikandar Viqar Naqvi Chairman of Port Qasim Authority.

The Liquid Cargo Terminal at Port Qasim is a joint venture project between Pakistan and Malaysia to handle vessels carrying bulk liquid products particularly edible oils and molasses.

Presently, Pakistan is covering 90pc of her edible oil requirements from Malaysia and Port Qasim has the pride to handle about 90pc of the total import of Edible oils into Pakistan.

The Liquid Cargo Terminal at Port Qasim will have the capacity to berth tankers up to 35000 dead weight tons and will provide exclusive berthing facilities for edible oils and molasses tankers.

Later Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Muhammad also witnessed another signing ceremony of a counter trade agreement between Jawala Corporation of Malaysia and Global Oil & Commodities (Pvt) Ltd.

Jawala Corporation will export Malaysian palm oil worth $50 million whereas Global Oil and Commodities will provide cotton yarn, rice, fruits and other services as counter products to Jawala.

Both Pakistani companies import about 200,000 tons of palm oil per year from various countries. They are also major exporters of Pakistani yarn.

The Malaysian Prime Minister also performed official inaugural ceremony of Liberty Power Plant here at a local hotel.

The initial work on the Liberty Power Plant was started at Dharki in Sindh Province in 1995 but the project could not achieve progress due to some unavoidable circumstance.

The Liberty Power Plant, through a massive steel and concrete giant in looks, has been designed with warmth and compassion by one Muslim nation for another.

The plant adheres to all the requirements of the authorities, ensures continuous and reliable supply of the much needed energy to uplift socio-economic status of people.

The power plant is designed to use the abandoned indigenous fossil fuel with in house treatment plant.—APP