Will Pakistan's Gwadar Be Like Hong Kong?

[RiazHaq]

The port city of Hong Kong has played a pivotal role in China's economic and trade expansion on the Chinese East Coast in the Pacific region. Meanwhile, China's Western region has remained relatively underdeveloped.

China's West Coast:

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Is China looking to build and use Gwadar in Pakistan as Hong Kong West to accelerate development in its West? Will Gwadar serve as asuperhighway for China's trade expansion in Middle East, Africa and Europe? A point to project Chinese economic and military might westward?

Unlike the continental United States which has coasts on both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans allowing it easy access to Europe and Asia, China has only one coast, its East Coast along South China Sea.

As the Americans look to Asia with the US Pivot to Asia and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Chinese are looking to expand westward with Central Asia as well as Africa, Europe and the Middle East with "One Road One Belt" initiative funded by Silk Road Fund and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Pakistan is a crucial partner in this strategy, particularly the development of Pakistan-China Corridorlinking China's western region with Gwadar port on the Arabia Sea.

Gwadar Deep Sea Port:

The Chinese see Gwadar deep sea port and the town of Jiwani as Hong Kong West, a gateway to Middle East, Africa and Europe. It will be the most important link in China's Maritime Silk Route (MSR), a sort of superhighway to the West for Chinese trade.

Professor Juan Cole of University of Michigan has aptly described the Chinese strategy as follows:

China’s enormous northwest is much closer to the Arabian Sea than to the port of Shanghai. It is about 2800 km. from Urumqi (pop. 4 million, the size of Los Angeles inside city limits) to Karachi, but twice as far to Shanghai. China has decided to develop its northwest by turning Pakistan into a sort of Hong Kong West. Hong Kong played, and perhaps still plays an important role as a gateway for certain kinds of foreign investment into China. In the same way, Pakistan can be a window on the world and a conduit for oil and trade into northwestern cities such as Urumqi and the smaller Kashgar (pop. 1 mn.)

In addition to a major expansion of the deep sea port, there are plans in place for building a modern city with several skyscrapers, an international airport, highways and industrial parks in Gwadar, Balochistan. There will be air, road and rail links to move people and freight to and from around the world. Oil and gas pipelines are planned to transport energy as well. When completed, it will be comparable to major international port cities of Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Baloch Insurgency:

Baloch insuegency is cited as a key threat to the implementation of the China-Pakistan Corridor in Pakistan. What is often not acknowledged by analysts is the fact that the Baloch insurgency is dying. It's a fact that has recently described in some detail by Malik Siraj Akbar who is sympathetic to the Baloch separatist cause. Here's what Akbar wrote in December 2014 in a piece titled "The End of Pakistan's Baloch Insurgency?":

"Since its beginning in 2004, the Pakistan's Baloch insurgency is caught up in the worst infighting ever known to the general public. Different left-wing underground armed groups that had been fighting Islamabad for a free Baloch homeland have now started to attack each other's camps......Frustration, suspicion, infighting and division are the common features of the end of a guerrilla fight. Perhaps that time has come in Balochistan. "

The announcement of the Pak-China deal seems to have re-energized those who seek to hurt Pakistan. They are now trying to resuscitate the dying Baloch insurgency. Western media has widely publicized an interview of Bramdagh Bugti who is running the insurgency from the comfort of a Swiss hotel room. In addition, Pakistan's western-funded NGOs are being used to play up the Baloch insurgency in the media with events like "Un-Silencing Balochistan" event and by blaming the ISI for the murder of Karachi activist Sabeen Mahmud.

Summary:

The China-Pak Corridor deal could prove to be transformational for Pakistan's economy, prosperity and rising living standards of its nearly 200 million people. As development work moves forward for Gwadar and China-Pakistan Corridor, I fully expect several hostile nations, including neighboring India, to use their proxies on the ground in Balochistan and some members of the "civil society" made up of someforeign-funded NGOs in Pakistan to make progress as difficult as possible. There will be serious efforts by many to resuscitate the dying Baloch insurgency. Pakistani people and both civil and military leaders need to be prepared to deal with these hurdles.




http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/05/will-pakistans-gwadar-become-hong-kong.html

 

[khan afghan1]

Off course it will if the actual route is not diverted and if the people of BALOCHISTAN is given say in the Project and Balochis are not converted into minority.
After 18th amendment each province has the right to exploit the available resource. Punjab should not take Balochistan rights and let them prosperous. Otherwise the dream of becoming Hong Kong will not come true

 

[ThirdUmpireFinger]

Off course it will if the actual route is not diverted and if the people of BALOCHISTAN is given say in the Project and Balochis are not converted into minority.
After 18th amendment each province has the right to exploit the available resource. Punjab should not take Balochistan rights and let them prosperous. Otherwise the dream of becoming Hong Kong will not come true

Punjab is not taking everyone rights and stop believing in crap spread by bunch of loosers. Gawadar is in Balochistan and Gilgit and Hazara is in KPk. Punjab has no border with either China or has any port. Some bunch of looser spreading lies of changing route etc.

Government wants China to start importing and exporting their goods from existing routes asap and working on other roads around the country in the mean time. Also, Punjab is Pakistan too where 70% of Pakistani lives and you simply can not punish them if they has chief minister who is doing hard to bring foreign investment rather than dancing on a container when people were dying in Peshawar.

 

[arafay]

bhai sahab aap kis dunya mein ho. hong kong kaha aur gawadar kahan. HK gdp per capita is USD 38k. pakistan gdp per capita is USD 1.3k. point is that sark aur port se agar koi shehir hong kong banjaye tu phr dunya ke saray port cities hong kong hotay. jis mulk mein 65% log apna name nahi likh sakte wo kabhi bhi ek khaas had se ziyada tarraqii nahi karsakta.

yehi waja ha ke arab mumalik mein itna paisay honay ke bawajood, unka dunya me makam ik petrol pump se ziyada nahi ha. jabke sweden/finland/norway/denmark jese chotay magr parhe likhay mulko ne dunya mein apna loha manwaya ha.

 

[imran1976]

Off course it will if the actual route is not diverted and if the people of BALOCHISTAN is given say in the Project and Balochis are not converted into minority.
After 18th amendment each province has the right to exploit the available resource. Punjab should not take Balochistan rights and let them prosperous. Otherwise the dream of becoming Hong Kong will not come true

firstly, the city of Gawadar is in Balochistan, you don't know this fact; right???
secondly, Chinese investment in Gawadar will naturally attract people from all over Pakistan specially Karachi & Central Punjab & they will move to Gawadar -- Balochs are already in minority, this development will not change this reality.

 

[ptilover788]

Balochistan kay halaat ko dekthay hoe abhe nae lagta wohan kaam asan ho ga. Hamari dua hye kay yeh sara kaam ho jae port city wala. Pichlay 10 saal say to kuch nae hoa gawadar ka

 

[mrk123]

What is our fascination with making our cities just like some other city? Lahore will made just like Paris and Istanbul, Karachi will be made into Dubai, Gawadar will be Hong Kong, etc.

Just the fact that these statements are made shows that the people who are making these claims have no idea what they are talking about.

You cant build a road and the sit back and expect for it to be a catalyst for super growth. Just as you can't build a port and then expect for it to transform the most backward place to become Hong Kong. These things dont just happen in a vaccuum. You have to have a lot of right ingredients for this to happen.

 

[mrk123]

bhai sahab aap kis dunya mein ho. hong kong kaha aur gawadar kahan. HK gdp per capita is USD 38k. pakistan gdp per capita is USD 1.3k. point is that sark aur port se agar koi shehir hong kong banjaye tu phr dunya ke saray port cities hong kong hotay. jis mulk mein 65% log apna name nahi likh sakte wo kabhi bhi ek khaas had se ziyada tarraqii nahi karsakta.

yehi waja ha ke arab mumalik mein itna paisay honay ke bawajood, unka dunya me makam ik petrol pump se ziyada nahi ha. jabke sweden/finland/norway/denmark jese chotay magr parhe likhay mulko ne dunya mein apna loha manwaya ha.

This is the crowd that falls for statements from crooks like malik riaz who wants to make pakistan more developed than the US and Europe.

 

[RiazHaq]

India's worries about Pak-China Industrial Corridor:


Recent pictures of the Chinese President Xi Jinping's aircraft being escorted by eight made-in-China Pakistani JF-17 Thunder fighter jets as it entered the Pakistani airspace reflect the expanding relationship of the two countries. On his two-day visit to Islamabad in April, Xi committed $46 billion of investments in Pakistan. This is roughly three times the foreign direct investment Pakistan has received in the last decade. This is also more than the $31 billion Pakistan got in US aid since 2002, according to the US-based Congressional Research Service. Clearly, Xi's visit has larger geopolitical ramifications. And for India, it could be a cause for concern.
The investment would go into building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. This would include a road connecting Gwadar port in Balochistan with Kashgar in Xinjiang province of China via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The 3,000-km corridor would have industrial parks and 10.4 GW of power projects worth $15.5 billion. China is already upgrading the 1,300-km Karakoram Highway despite Indian opposition. The highway, being built by state-owned China Road & Bridge Corporation, is expected to be ready by September this year. China's help in developing infrastructure in the disputed part of Kashmir is seen as its support to Pakistan's claim on this region.


Another reason to worry for India is that China has the rights to operate the Gwadar port, which increases Beijing's influence in the Arabian Sea. The new road and the Gwadar port would help China boost trade with Europe, West Asia and Africa. This will also give China easier access to West Asian oil, especially from Iran. China is one of the biggest consumers of Iranian oil and this route would help it transport oil before it completes a pipeline from Gwadar to Kashgar. Beijing is also helping Islamabad complete the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline at a cost of $2 billion.
The growing engagement between China and Pakistan may prove to be a stumbling block for India's ambitious plans to boost ties with Afghanistan and Iran. India had committed $100 million to develop the Chabahar port in Iran, but the project is stuck. The port is important for India to access Afghanistan by bypassing Pakistan. Islamabad has already rejected New Delhi's proposal on the SAARC motor vehicle pact that would have allowed seamless transit to vehicles from South Asian countries. Pakistan's refusal makes it impossible for Indian transporters to use the land route to Afghanistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 28, told the visiting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that India was ready to receive Afghan trucks at the Integrated Check Post at Attari, on the India-Pakistan border. But that won't be enough.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure projects Chinese companies are executing in Pakistan will allow free movement to vehicles of the two countries. And while China's relations with India are also improving - Xi visited India in September last year and Modi is heading to China in May - New Delhi will still be wary of Beijing's growing clout in the region.

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/sto...istan-rising-headache-for-india/1/218868.html