KARACHI: A floating jetty constructed with the help of China to facilitate local fishermen in the Balochistan province is finally operational, officials said on Friday.
"The jetty completed by China Power Hub Generation Company Private Limited (CPHGC), has become operational and handed over to the local authorities this week,” Arshad Hussain Bugti, Secretary of Coastal Development and Fisheries, Balochistan, told Arab News on Saturday.
Built at a cost of $400,000 in the Lasbela region of the province, the pier will enable local fishermen to access the Arabian Sea and improve the means of earning a livelihood.
"The residents of Allana Goth (Allana village) are dependent on fishing as a livelihood,” Bugti said, adding that the platform would “provide a loading and an offloading facility to the fishermen with the help of which they can transport fuel for the boats, nets, fishing boxes, and the fish caught”.
The CPHGC project, which is part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative, is a joint venture between the China Power International Holding Limited (CPIH) and HUBCO -- an independent power producer of Pakistan.
In 2017, the CPHGC was apprised of the fact that Balochistan’s government wanted to improve the lives of Allana Goth’s residents. However, its Coastal Development and Fisheries Department could not afford to build the jetty due to a lack of funds.
China's State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC), which is the parent company of CPHGC financed the construction of the jetty, hopes that the fishing facility will improve the lives of the local fishermen community. The SPIC is one of the top five state-owned power generation corporations and one of the three approved nuclear power developers and operations in China.
SPIC is the main sponsor of 2 coal-fired power projects each with the generation capacity of 660 MW being constructed in Hub, Balochistan, under the umbrella of CPEC.
CPHGC is a $2 billion project that is located in Hub, Balochistan. The equity proportions of CPIH in CPHGC is 74 percent while that of HUBCO is 26 percent.
During commercial operations, the project will provide 9 billion kWh electricity to the National Grid every year which is expected to meet the electricity demands of four million households in Pakistan.
Pakistan is currently looking for ways to increase exports from the country to minimize the huge trade deficit, which -- during the first half of the current fiscal year -- was recorded at $16.8 billion, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS).
"Huge potential exists for the export of seafood from Pakistan,” Syed Akhlaq Hussain Abidi, chairman of Pakistan Fisheries Exporters Association, told Arab News adding that "last year the country was able to export 15 percent or $451 million worth of seafood".
However, the exports of fish and related products declined from October last year "due to the impact of the deep sea policy".
The Deep Sea Fishing Licensing Policy 2018 was approved by the previous government which bounds local fishing boats to acquire licenses to fish in zone III, which is created for deep sea industrial fishing boats which are 100 percent foreign. "The policy has created a serious setback to the local fishermen community which is hurting exports as well,” Abidi said.
However, the federal government has assured the Sindh High Court that it will review the policy, in response to a petition lodged against the same.
