Hundreds of Chinese trucks loaded with goods have rolled into Pakistan as a multibillion-dollar project between Pakistan and China formally became operational with the promise to be a game-changer for the regional economic development.
The shipment arrived more than two weeks after the first Chinese ship docked at Gwadar port – at the center of $ 50 billion-plus China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
The corridor is about 3,000-kilometre long consisting of networks of highways, railways and pipelines that will connect China’s Xinjiang province to the rest of the world through Gwadar deepsea port.
The first consignment, loaded on 150 to 300 trucks, was received by Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Hafeezur Rehman and the commander of the Force Command Northern Areas Maj Gen Saqib Mehmood.
“This is going to be the fate changer for our country,” said Rehman after a ceremony at the Sost dry port, which has recently been handed over to the National Logistics Cell (NLC) for a period of 20 years.
“We will thwart conspiracies being hatched against the CPEC,” he said in a veiled reference to India which has publicly opposed the multibillion-dollar project dubbed by independent experts as a ‘game-changer not just for Pakistan but for the entire region.
Recently, Iran, Pakistan’s southwestern neighbor, and Central Asian countries have shown tremendous interest in being part of the unprecedented commercial connectivity that the corridor promises.
A senior government official said the shipping containers carrying the Chinese goods would be escorted to Gwadar in small convoys. “The first convoy left Gilgit on Monday for its destination,” the official said.
Personnel of army, police and special CPEC force are providing security to the convoys in view of security challenges in some areas.
Some of the Chinese shipping containers were unloaded at Sost dry port where the goods were reloaded on to Pakistani containers for onward journey to Gawadar.
Earlier this year, Beijing donated to the Gilgit-Baltistan government, in Pakistan’s north, 25 vehicles equipped with modern security gears for the security of convoys coming from China. The G-B government has also installed 285 high-resolution closed-circuit cameras with night vision capability to track suspicious movements.
The chief minister said his government was planning to introduce an ‘environment tax’ on transporters doing business under CPEC. “We will legislate to levy the environment tax,” he added.
