ISLAMABAD: The first ever two-day Gwadar Expo-2018 will be held on January 29-30 in the port city of Balochistan which would help generate more business opportunities for foreign as well as local entrepreneurs under the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative. “Around 5,000 companies from various countries had applied for setting up booths to showcase their products at the exhibition centre, which has the capacity of only 150 booths,” Chinese Counselor Jiang Han told a media briefing at the Chinese embassy on Friday. He said as many as 18 booths had been allocated to the companies of Balochistan free of cost to promote local entrepreneurship. To a question, the counselor said the main objective of the expo was to highlight the significance of Gwadar and promote the special economic zones being set up there as an emerging business hub. He said the expo would help create maximum awareness about the full scope of Gwadar port besides providing a platform of interaction between local and foreign business entrepreneurs. He said the exhibition would provide an opportunity for Chinese and Pakistani businessmen to explore opportunities under the CPEC. “This two-day conference and exhibition will highlight achievements of the companies already working on the CPEC-related projects besides providing a platform to explore opportunities for industrial cooperation between businessmen of the participating countries,” he said. “We are confident that the participants will support this conference and the exhibition will provide a unique opportunity to deepen business relations between the business concerns,” he added. Jiang Han said the Gwadar port had three multifunctional berths which could accommodate two 50,000 ton vessels simultaneously including five STS cranes, 400 RF reefer container allocations and the stack yard of 500,000 square meters. He said the port could handle containers and other goods including bulk cargo, general cargo and RORO. He said presently seafood containers from Pakistan’s western coast area could be exported through Gwadar port to China, Middle East and other regions. He said Gwadar port was now connecting Karachi by marine high coast way and connecting Punjab and Sindh provinces with M 8 highway. The counselor said the Gwadar Free Zone covering an area of nine square kilometres would be built adjacent to the Gwadar port. The south area of the free zone (phase-I) will develop a commercial logistics zone with the leading functions of commodity exhibition, transit and distribution as well as fishery processing. He said the airport to be built in Gwadar would be even bigger than that in Karachi. “Processing and manufacturing areas will be developed in the north area and divided into three construction phases. Daily necessities and small household appliances, fishery, stone processing, transportation machinery manufacturing and metal processing are the main industries,” he added. Jian Han said tax exemption policy will be adopted in the development of bonded logistics. “The free zone will be built as an important node of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a demonstration zone of China-Pakistanis industrial cooperation and a new economic engine of western Pakistan,” he said. The counselor said under the corporate social responsibility, Pakistan-China Friendship School was established in Gwadar with a capacity to provide education facilities to 150 local children. He said the number of students in the school had now risen to 500. To a question about security conditions in Gwadar, the counselor said the law and order situation was quite normal in the area. Published in Daily Times, January 27th 2018.