A ceremony was held Sunday in Gwardar Port for the arrival of five port craft and 17 pieces of cargo-handling equipment provided by Chinese contractors for the Gwardar Deep Water Port, about 460 km west of Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.

On behalf of the Chinese Commerce Ministry, Chinese Economic and Commercial Counselor Ma Changlin said on the occasion that the arrival of the port craft and equipment means the construction of the Gwardar port project Phase-I has nearly ended and the port will be operational by the end of December.

Gwardar Port Implementation Authority Chairman Akbarali Pesnani expressed his gratitude to the Chinese engineers and said the Pakistani people will remember the three Chinese engineers killed in a terrorist blast in May. The friendship between Pakistan and China will last forever, he added.

About 200 Chinese and Pakistani officials and engineers attended the ceremony, which was held on the newly built berths.

Sun Ziyun, general manager of Gwarder port project Phase-I from China Harbor Engineering Company (Group), told Xinhua that the port craft and cargo handling equipment were made in China and transported to the Gwadar port last week. The company, world famous in the field of port engineering, is the main contractor for the Gwadar project Phase-I.

Gwardar, a port town in Baluchistan province, is situated on the north beach of the Arabian Sea. The Gwadar port project Phase-I was started in March 2002.