Source: Atimes:
KARACHI – China will take over the Pakistan’s strategically located Gwadar Port in southwestern Balochistan after Singapore decided to pull out of a 40-year port management and development contract signed in 2007.
Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) and its partners – Aqeel Kareem Dedhi (AKD) Group of Karachi and the National Logistic Cell (NCL) – are ready to sell their share of Gwadar Port to China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd (CHEC), a state-owned company, and have been allowed to quit the Gwadar Port’s development contract after the government failed to transfer 584 acres (236. 3 hectares) of land under possession of the Pakistan Navy for the free zone at the port.
“The denial of land at Gwadar Port forced PSA to leave the port, which will be taken over by a Chinese company,” Business Recorder reported Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Khan Ghauri as telling the senate’s standing committee on ports and shipping last week after the government issued PSA with a notice to quit the contract five years after taking up the challenging project.