China formally took over the operational control of the Gwadar Port in Pakistan's south-western Balochistan province during the first visit to Pakistan by China's premier, Li Keqiang, last month. Under a contract signed between the two countries in February this year, the port has been handed over to the China Overseas Ports Holding Company, which has purchased all the shares in Gwadar Port project from the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA).
China has become the operator of the strategic port, which it has largely built and funded.
Pakistan plans to develop Gwadar Port City on the pattern of Dubai. The government of the newly elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has declared Gwadar as a duty-free port on the lines of Jebel Ali . If mega development projects are smoothly and timely materialised, Gwadar may turn into a city, which will be comparable with Singapore, Hong Kong, Colombo and Dubai.
Gwadar has a special significance with reference to its geo-strategic location and potential for development of trade links with the nations of the Central Asian Republics (Cars), Arabian Gulf and East Africa as well as north-western India. Gwadar port has land access to the whole of Asia and it has also easy sea access to the Gulf ports.
Islamabad and Beijing plan to link Gwadar in Balochistan with China's far western province of Xinjiang through several road and rail connectivity projects. Development activity in Balochistan and Xinjiang is expected to bring an economic bonanza for both countries.
Then there is a geographical proximity of Kashgar, western China's main city, with Gwadar, which is close to the Middle East and Central Asia. Trade through Gwadar port would cut thousands of kilometres off the distance to ship oil from the oil-rich regions to China.
No doubt, Gwadar port is commercially important for China, as it may help China to trade with the Central Asian and Gulf states. There are not two opinions about the potential of the Arabian Sea port that would enable China to gain access to Middle East for oil imports, which may be shipped to western China through Pakistan.
China direly needs port facilities that would ideally be in the proximity area of the Gulf yet be outside the sensitive Strait of Hormuz. Gwadar port provides China an alternative to the Strait of Malacca, through which 80 per cent of its oil imports flow.
China is expected to invest US$10 billion to make the strategically located port fully functional to serve as mother port of the region.
Security will be the biggest challenge for China, which plans to develop Gwadar as a gateway port for its western region.
Will China be able to secure energy and maritime routes through a port surrounded by the restive regions? The separatist movements in Balochistan and Xinjiang pose grave threats to the Chinese interests in Gwadar. The separatists may dampen the China's prospects for strategic access to energy-rich Central Asia through the Pakistan-China energy and trade corridor.
Balochistan reels from a separatist insurgency and sectarian violence. The Baloch separatists, who are engaged in a struggle against the Pakistani armed forces, are fighting for an independent Balochistan. Engaged in many development projects, the Chinese have been attacked several times in the province. In 2004, three Chinese engineers working on the seaport project were killed in a terrorist attack in Gwadar.
Terrorist activity may turn the whole scheme of developing Gwadar into a gateway port for western China upside-down. Beijing's ambitious plans for establishing trade and energy corridors are likely to be held hostage to the terrorist activity in Xinjiang and Balochistan and the port linking the two restive regions is likely to remain a commercial failure under the Chinese. Ironically, the terrorist incursions into western China could change the proposed trade corridor into a terror corridor putting billions of dollars of investment at stake.
One thing should be very clear: that it is not the development or foreign investment that will bring peace, but it is peace and stability that can bring foreign investment and development projects to fruition in Gwadar.
Gwadar is foreseen as the future Dubai of the subcontinent. As a free trade zone and a corridor to cars, Gwadar offers great economic opportunities to international investors.
The port has many natural advantages. It may emerge as a natural access port to Asia for trade and commerce. A road can connect it to the Iranian port of Chahbahar and thus to the Iranian road network. A road linkwith the RCD highway can give it access not only to the whole of Central Asia, but also south-western China. It is more economically feasible for China to have land access to Kashgar through Gwadar because of the Karakoram Highway.
It is, however, keeping the peace that is the real key to developing Gwadar into a new Dubai. It is because of peace and stability in Dubai that the head offices of a number of multinational companies are located there. More than 2,800 companies from more than 100 countries are based in Dubai.
Syed Fazl-e-Haider is a development analyst in Pakistan. He is the author of many books, including The Economic Development of Balochistan, published in May 2004
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
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SPECS
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Company%20profile
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GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
The specs
Engine: 2.2-litre, turbodiesel
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Power: 160hp
Torque: 385Nm
Price: Dh116,900
On sale: now
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
england euro squad
Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Man Utd), Sam Johnstone (West Brom), Jordan Pickford (Everton)
Defenders: John Stones (Man City), Luke Shaw (Man Utd), Harry Maguire (Man Utd), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Kyle Walker (Man City), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Reece James (Chelsea), Conor Coady (Wolves), Ben Chilwell (Chelsea), Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid)
Midfielders: Mason Mount (Chelsea), Declan Rice (West Ham), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Kalvin Phillips (Leeds)
Forwards: Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd), Raheem Sterling (Man City), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Phil Foden (Man City), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The biog
Profession: Senior sports presenter and producer
Marital status: Single
Favourite book: Al Nabi by Jibran Khalil Jibran
Favourite food: Italian and Lebanese food
Favourite football player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Languages: Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and some Spanish
Website: www.liliane-tannoury.com
South Africa v India schedule
Tests: 1st Test Jan 5-9, Cape Town; 2nd Test Jan 13-17, Centurion; 3rd Test Jan 24-28, Johannesburg
ODIs: 1st ODI Feb 1, Durban; 2nd ODI Feb 4, Centurion; 3rd ODI Feb 7, Cape Town; 4th ODI Feb 10, Johannesburg; 5th ODI Feb 13, Port Elizabeth; 6th ODI Feb 16, Centurion
T20Is: 1st T20I Feb 18, Johannesburg; 2nd T20I Feb 21, Centurion; 3rd T20I Feb 24, Cape Town
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
The%20specs
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The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
