KARACHI, Jan 16: Pakistan has undertaken a comprehensive National Trade Corridor Improvement Programme focusing on augmenting transport capacities by developing land and land-cum-sea transport linkages with all neighbouring countries in the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) region.
This was stated by the secretary, ministry of Ports and Shipping, Ms Naheed Hyder, at the inaugural session of the third meeting of the ECO heads of Reference Marine Organisations held here on Tuesday.
The development of national trade corridor, she said, would promote inter-regional cooperation, trade and tourism among ECO member states and would ensure efficient and cost-effective infrastructure to facilitate growing trade.
For this purpose, the secretary said Pakistan was implementing landlord concept at all ports and a comprehensive development programme is under implementation for modernisation of Karachi Port and Port Qasim and development of Gwadar deep water port.Ms Hyder appreciated that ECO had undertaken initiatives for greater cooperation in the field of maritime transport, with the assistance of international organisations. However, she drew the attention of the participants towards the challenges arising out of rapid changes taking place in ports and shipping industry owing to globalisation and advancement in technology, coupled with modern trends of deregulation, logistic integration and containerisation.
Keeping these challenges in view, she urged the ECO delegates to deliberate on these issues to enhance coordination within the framework of ECO charter for the benefit and common interest of member states.
Speaking on the occasion, Director of Transport and Communications of ECO Secretariat Mohammad Mirzaei said that the ECO with 10 member countries, as a young organisation, established in 1992, could develop necessary infrastructures, such as the linkage of roads, railways and fibre optic network.
All these developments provide the necessary groundwork for the enforcement of Transit Transport Framework Agreement (TTFA).
The organisation had already launched ECO Trade and Development Bank in Turkey and ECO Reinsurance Company in Pakistan last year.
Mr Mirzaei said the basic documents outlining ECO’s objectives and policies in the fields of transport and communications highlighted this sector as a top priority for regional cooperation.
Infrastructure development and maintenance in transport sub-sectors were defined in the Programme of Action for the ECO Decade of Transport and Communications 1998-2007.
Completion of Bafq-Mashad Railway in Iran, which shortens the North-South corridor by more than 800 kms, is one of the significant achievements of that programme, he added.
Other important railway links, he said, are Bam-Zahedan in Iran, rehabilitation of Taftan-Quetta railway in Pakistan and bypass of Lake Van of the East-West transport corridor in Turkey.
The ECO Trans-Asia-Middle East-Europe Railway project, which connects Almaty in Kazakhstan to Istanbul in Turkey, is to be linked to China in the East and Europe in the West.
The planned container and passenger trains, Mohammad Mirzaei said on this route have done their demonstration in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
Similarly, he said that the ECO region had great potential for development of maritime transportation as statistics indicate that total merchant fleets of ECO region have steadily increased since 2002 and reached about 18 million dwt in 2005.
These figures show that the size of merchant fleets of ECO region is about three times bigger than that of the whole African countries and 50 per cent of developing countries of American continent.
In addition, he said three ECO transit countries (Iran, Pakistan and Turkey) have made huge investments in their infrastructure to develop transit links, especially focusing on ports and transhipment facilities. This is an encouraging perspective for other seven landlocked member countries to enjoy the benefits of the ports of these countries to catch the opportunities in the world markets.
Director-General Ports and Shipping Captain Anwar Shah said that Pakistan is the most compliant country of the region as it has rectified 27 International Maritime Organisation (IMO) conventions.
He said that shipping is a global industry and local laws play little role in its operations and functioning.