There's no reason that Karachi couldn't also serve as a regional transit hub.
A port is a port, after all. And existing traffic flows are the starting point for a hub
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Global South strategic cooperation
- Thread starter Strangelove
- Start date
There's no reason that Karachi couldn't also serve as a regional transit hub.
A port is a port, after all. And existing traffic flows are the starting point for a hub
Karachi can also serve certain regional transit functions & to some extent it already does. But I still don’t think it is in direct competition with Gwadar in the same way as ports like Dubai or even Chabahar were envisioned to be.
Gwadar is a deep-sea port & its importance is more about geography & strategic positioning. It is much closer to Gulf shipping lanes & is specifically tied to the western China/CPEC corridor concept linking the Arabian Sea with western China, Afghanistan & potentially Central Asia. Karachi, meanwhile, primarily handles Pakistan’s own massive import-export trade & domestic commercial activity.
So, while both are Pakistani ports, their intended long-term roles aren't exactly the same, which is why the comparison is not entirely straightforward.
Freight volumes between China and Pakistan won't be high. It will be cheaper to ship goods from China to Pakistan via sea, rather than rail or road
That assumption only holds if you treat Gwadar as a standard China–Pakistan bulk trade lane, which it isn’t really designed to be.
Its value proposition is more about providing alternative access for western China & landlocked Central Asian regions under CPEC, rather than competing with established east-coast China–global maritime routes where economies of scale already dominate.
So the comparison with conventional sea freight cost structures between China & Pakistan doesn’t fully capture the strategic purpose behind the corridor.
So, Tajikistan President visited China right before Trump and American press are surprised that Trump is not the headline on China Daily.
just pointing out here that Central Asia is really important to China's development plans.
just pointing out here that Central Asia is really important to China's development plans.
Yes, ASEAN countries in general have a different mindset when it comes to development policies and economic upliftment . Have you never wondered why Chinas largest trade partner is not even the EU or US or Japan but ASEAN? Despite ASEAN economy being 4 times smaller than the EU for example($5trillion vs $21trillion). Shows you how business minded ASEAN has turned out to be, plus they are growing much faster as well(5% on average while EU barely manages 1.5% ) and ASEAN has a far younger and larger population (720million strong and growing ) compared to a stagnant declining population growth in Europe/China/Korea/Japan. So if projections hold then ASEAN might Close the gap this coming decades vis a vis E.U and so will only grow even more important partner for China as a trade partner and market.
Your question about Indonesia is revealing a lot. I noticed many people tend to underestimate and overlook ASEAN (even some Chinese , Japanese, Korean, West). Indonesia has a GDP of $1.4trillion(they are expected to grow on average 5-6% this decade) with a population of 285million and growing healthy with an optimistic outlook in the future(projected to be a top 5 economy this coming 2 decades ), Pakistan by contrast has relative population of over 260million growing even faster but barely $378billion GDP and low growth rate while both are Islamic countries, and even so Pakistans economy relies a lot of remittances from abroad(mostly gulf states and West) . Indonesia outperforms Pakistan in almost all economic aspects, despite their shred Islamic beliefs. It’s not by coincidence they perform better, it Shows a different mindset and maturity by the leadership . So the gap will only grow larger this coming years in Indonesias Favour and there’s a good reason for that. Remember that few decades ago they were similar with Pakistan even having a larger healthier economy. As I said Pakistanis leaders have messed up the country badly this past decades. I predict that by the end of the decade Indonesia economy would have grown from 4 times Pakistan to probably 8times Pakistans while Pakistan would probably catchup/surpass Indonesia in population .
Last edited: