Despite serious efforts to build and promote Gwadar as a global trade centre, business is scarce in the port city. A field report reveals that a lack of infrastructure hampers development and construction of a major road has left fishers worse off.

The Gwadar Free Zone and port area. Business was slow at the port when The Third Pole visited in April 2021.

There are big plans for Pakistan’s southern coastal city of Gwadar. Pakistan and China are making a considerable effort – and pledging close to USD 700 million in investment – to transform what was once a sleepy fishing town into a vibrant trade hub, complete with a seaport, airport, major road connections and a trade zone. But the pace of development is slow, and business even slower.

“[It] must be because they [the developers] do not have the blessings of the people of Gwadar,” said Abdul Rasheed Isa, a fisher of the Khulgari Ward settlement in the port city.

visit in April this year revealed that the only real activity at Gwadar port was undertaken by two small crabs, which had made a gargantuan effort to haul themselves up from the crystal-clear water of the Arabian Sea onto the dock. The towering blue and red cranes, brought there to load and unload shipping containers, were still.

The port is the crown jewel of the USD 62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which connects China’s western Xinjiang province to the Arabian Sea. It is where both countries hope the logistics of incoming and outgoing cargo will be handled for an international market.

What is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)?

The Gwadar port dream started in 2013, when a little-known state-owned company, the China Overseas Port Holding Company (COPHC), acquired the port for 40 years on behalf of Pakistan. About 90% of the port’s revenue is contracted to go to the Chinese company.

On paper, the port’s potential is promising. At present, it has space to berth two or three large ships with a capacity of 50,000 deadweight tonnage. By 2045, it is expected to berth 150 ships and hold up to 400 million tonnes of cargo. According to the Pakistani government, a functional Gwadar port, the country’s third deep sea port, will meet the “increasing demand for trade” that the existing Karachi and Qasim ports are “unlikely to keep pace with” on their own.

Though parts of Gwadar have had a visible facelift, the lives of its 265,000 residents, the majority of whom are poor fishers, have barely improved. In some cases, the construction of these projects has added to their problems. Most struggle with access to basic necessities such as electricity and have limited options for education.

Slow business coupled with delays to major CPEC projects in Gwadar – such as the main expressway road, coal power station and new airport – could mean that their lives are unlikely to improve any time soon.