US to expand container screening at Pak ports

KARACHI (APP) US Ambassador Anne W Patterson said Wednesday that United States wanted to expand its containers pre-screening arrangements to facilitate rapid clearance of Pakistani export consignments at American ports. This would enhance export containers handling from 46,000 containers per annum in 2009 to 146,000 annually this year, she said while delivering a speech on Moving Forward: the US and Pakistan in 2010 at Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI).
However, this expansion plan was facing hurdles due to delay in the issue of visas to American inspectors who will train Pakistani employees working at Port Qasim, she added.
Similarly, the government had yet not set aside the land at Karachi Port for the expansion programme where another 100,000 containers would be screened each year. As a result this expansion programme may shrink or even lapse this year costing Pakistani exporters millions of dollars in security screening cost, she noted.
The Ambassador pointed out Pakistan had lost a $3.5 billion investment for one of its least developed regions in Balochistan due to 11th hour cancellation of contract by the provincial government with a private international company for building a copper and gold mine in Reko Diq.
She noted that multinational corporations hesitant invest in such situation.