China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has enabled Pakistan to leapfrog on a development superhighway. The CPEC is the showcase of China’s mammoth Belt and Route Initiative (BRI), while Gwadar is going to be the showcase of this $ 62 billion gigantic program. Gwadar means “the gateway of breeze”, will be Pakistan’s third deep warm water port and the gateway of the CPEC on the Balochistan coast, where a modern state of the art port will be serving as a major regional shipping hub from connected to Kashgar, China, and central Asia via Khunjerab pass in the north.

Gwadar a deep seaport, being developed by the China Overseas Ports Holding Company Limited (COPHCL), promises economic opportunities for Balochistan and Pakistan. Gwadar is going to be the next Dubai in the making on Balochistan’s soil in the next 2 decades or so if everything goes as planned. Gwadar dream is like increasing the per capita GDP to the US $ 15,000 from the present $ 1,100.

China wants to see Gwadar as a modern, smart port city with economic free zones, with similarities to its Shenzhen port city, but the question is, is Pakistan ready to take up this gigantic challenge? How should it plan to make Gwadar the next Dubai? 

 Modern smart port cities are major commercial hubs for investors, industrialists and Multinational corporations. Smart ports are usually operated under a smart and efficient governance system. But Gwadar exists in Pakistan’s traditional colonial power landscape where federal, provincial and local government authorities have their jurisdictions, with NOC issuing powers, besides powerful and influential armed forces of Pakistan.

Gwadar exists in a troubled province where a low-intensity insurgency is going on, as there have been bomb blasts and firing incidents in which some people were killed in 2019. Stringent security measures are being taken to protect the city by fencing it. But besides physical security, investors and inhabitants also need “social security”. A living vibrant city is not a walled and gated enclave; it should thrive with cultural and social values, soul and its people.

The Government and state institutions are not well capable of undertaking huge projects like Gwadar smart port city with a competitive efficiency and speed, matching with the Chinese. 

Pakistan needs to engage the local population and political parties into a dialogue and assure them of their fair share and participation, in terms of access to new economic opportunities in Gwadar’s development and address their concerns about political marginalization. For that purpose, a parliamentary act can be passed to give certain assurance to local Baloch people, giving some guarantees about access to jobs, land and fair economic opportunities. 

We need to design and develop our indigenous smart governance and management model to fit in our local context and conditions, through stakeholder’s consultation and deep study of successes and failures of modern economic smart ports of Dubai, Shenzhen and other such smart port cities in India and elsewhere. 

The Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) is the main governing body entrusted to lead the development work in the city, it is a provincial entity and under the Government of Balochistan, while Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) is connected to the federal Ministry of Maritime Affairs. This administrative setup is vulnerable to create interagency coordination problems, conflicts and overlapping. In this system, there is not a single agency that can make quick decisions, and serve the needs of investors and industrialists.

A single governing entity that could serve as a focal point could provide a one-window-facilitation, for all kinds of demands of the Gwadar smart economic port city, ranging from access to land, electricity, water connection and all other amenities. Usually, in other successful smart economic cities, a city mayor’s office is the main authority that functions as a central focal point for coordination among stakeholders.

It is proposed that under the GDA, there should be a corporate style executive set up, led by a professional CEO, and qualified, experienced staff for different departments. A robust governance system backed by local consent and parliamentary approval and designed according to international management best practices and standards will ensure the successful realization of Gwadar dream.

(Tanveer Arif is an environmentalist and development professional email: tanveerarif608@gmail.com )

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