Authority chairman Lt-Gen (Retd.) Asim Saleem Bajwa has given a statement about the productive operation of CPEC. Once Gwadar port starts to operation fully, it will generate economic activities of around $10 billion per annum, besides creating thousands of new jobs. Soon after completion of the Gwadar Free Zone, a lot of manufacturing and trading activities will start, cargoes will move, and transshipment activities will increase. The port’s infrastructural work had been completed by the China Port Holding Company at the cost of around $300 million with all its four berths fully operational. Now the prime focus is to increase the port traffic for which negotiations are under process to pursue the logistic companies to establish their offices in the city. The Gwadar Port Free Zone in its first phase spreading over 60 acres of land had already been completed, with 47 enterprises registered. Six factories had been completed, and three of them are now fully operational while six others are under construction. For the last three years, the port and free zone has created some 1,200 direct jobs, while 12,000 more people were hired for building the support infrastructure. The second phase of Gwadar Port Free Zone will spread over 2,221 acres of land. The Eastbay Expressway will directly take the cargo from port to M-8 for onward shipment to Karachi and the rest of the country. Some 94 percent of work on the expressway had been completed, which would hopefully be inaugurated in September. Similarly the work on Gwadar Airport is also going on at fast pace while technical and vocational institutes in the city would also be completed in October. Moreover, a 150-bed hospital is under construction in the Gwadar city, which is a gift from the Chinese president for the local residents.
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