Over 2000 years ago Saudi Arabia and China has already been importing and

exporting with each other. Silk road is the route being used thousands of years ago in

trading of goods in return of money of other goods. And last 2016 Saudi Arabia declared

its national plan on economic reform together with China, they established a

cooperative commission to encourage the alignment of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

and the 2030 Vision. In line with this, both countries are expecting an easier means of

exporting and importing products from each other due to the relation they have. And

with this, a critical analyzation for the free trade zones is a must.

 Free Trade Zones

Free trade zones or formerly called free port’s purpose is to get rid of seaport,

airport and border those interferences to trade due to the high tariffs and complex

customs regulations of different countries. Registration in FTZ’s is significantly easier

and faster than the usual import and export process. Here in our study, we will be

focusing on the route of exports and imports from Saudi Arabia to China and Vice

Versa.

I. Existing Route
 (Image 1. Existing Route of Imports and Exports [64)

Image above is the existing route were imported and exported goods are passing

through. We can see that from Gwadar Port in Pakistan goods are transported to

Singapore using the path from Europe and from there it will be transferred to Shanghai

Port in China and finally to Kashgar Port. Using this route, you need to travel roughly

around 12,000 miles to go from Gwadar Port in Pakistan to Kashgar Port in China. The

process of transporting the goods using this path is very costly and also time

consuming.

II. CPEC Route or New Route

 (Image 2. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Route [64])

While this image above shows another possible route from Gwadar Port in

Pakistan to Kashgar Port in China. Using this passage will reduce the distance from

12,000 miles to 2,000 miles giving us the difference of 10,000 miles, which means less

time for transporting of goods and also less fees. This route is under the CPEC or

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, it is a system of railways, roads and pipelines which

is also under the One Belt, One Road Initiative of China or BRI. With this joint project,

both China and Pakistan will have a decrease in trade cost and time to transport goods,

and will also bring a change in the modes of transportation. Due to the improvement of

the land route, distance and time travel between Pakistan and China will fall significantly

and the GDP of both countries will increase abruptly. That’s why both of them are

strengthening their relationship with each other [64].

 (Image 3. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Route Detailed Map [63])

Image above shows the route from Gwadar Port (Pakistan) to Kashgar Port

(China) under the CPEC. From the image, you can see the names of the specific

highways that will be the passage for the transport of goods or other materials and

according to the map there will also be railways for easier and faster transportation for

the both countries.

 Imports and Exports

Due to the alliance of both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia with China for the Belt and

road initiative, the importing and exporting of goods are expected to increase which can
greatly help in achieving the 2030 Vision. And also, it helps in building of more

infrastructure within the countries involve and may bring job for the people there.

Image above is the imports and exports of Pakistan to China for 10 years, and as

we can see it is directly increasing every year. And is forecasted to increase more as a

lot of infrastructures like roads, bridges etc. and business will be built under the

agreement of both countries.

Not only this project will help in easier and faster transporting of the goods of

both countries to each other and also to the other neighboring countries. And with that

imports and export will gradually increase as time goes by and will result to better

economy.