The Gwadar Port, a port built with Chinese financial and technical support in southwestern Pakistan's Baluchistan on the Arabian Sea, started operation on Tuesday(March 21), officials announced in Gwadar.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the port, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said that it is the Pakistani-Chinese friendly relationship that has made the dream of Gwadar port become a reality, and he appreciates the great help from Chinese government and people.

Li Shenglin, special envoy of the Chinese government, who attended the ceremony at the invitation of Pakistani government, said that as a landmark project highlighting the Sino-Pakistani friendship in the new century, the construction and inauguration of Gwadar port would definitely boost the economic development in Pakistan especially in its southwest province of Baluchistan.

The Chinese government would like to take the opportunity of the port inauguration to further promote corporate cooperation and deepen the bilateral strategic partnership between the two countries, said Li, Chinese minister of communications.

Li is currently in Pakistan on a four-day visit from March 18 to 21.

Upon the request from Pakistan government, China agreed in 2001 to provide support for the project. China has made a total investment of 198 million U.S. dollars in the project, besides offering technical and construction support for the project, in which the Pakistani government has invested some 50 million dollars.

Commenced in March 2002, the 14.5-meter-deep Gwadar port has a designed annual throughput of 100,000 TEU of containers, 270,000 tons of general cargo and 450,000 tons of bulk grain.

Located at the Gwadar, a town in southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, the Gwadar port is some 70 kilometers away from the Iranian border to the west, and about 460 kilometers away from Karachi to the east, the major port city of southern Pakistan.