Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) would help country enhancing export by US $ 1 billion to US $ 1.5 billion per annum in the short-run by ensuring effective and comprehensive planning.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) Chief, Mian Kashif said FIEDMC a successful entity of combination of public private sectors partnership and first ever state of the art will ultimately turn into a economic engine of country progress through China Pakistan Economic Corridor initiatives.
Appreciating economic vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said Premier has directed all the concerned departments to remove hurdles in the way of development of SEZs and establish them on priority basis.
Fortunately, he said almost hundred percent plots in M-3 Industrial Estate have already been sold out while hundreds of units have become operational and were playing their role in providing exportable surplus in addition to accommodating thousands of workers.
Mian Kashif said the industrial city would house more than 400, textile, steel, pharmaceutical, engineering, chemical, food processing, plastic and agriculture appliances units in addition to providing jobs to 250 thousand workers.
He claimed that the city was also expected to attract Rs. 400 billion local and foreign direct investment which would help Pakistan to stabilize its economy.
He further said that Faisalabad was strategically located in the heart of Pakistan and was flanked by two motorways passing from its eastern and western sides.
He said that this city has a unique privilege to contribute 60 percent towards textile exports and 45 percent towards total exports of the country.
He further said that it was not only restricted to textile which was its iconic identification but hundreds of SMEs hailing from chemicals, steel, food processing and others were also playing their role in the overall economy of Pakistan.
FIEDMC Chairman further said investors from China, Turkey, Korea and Britain have pumped US$ 1.10 billion and their confidence in Pakistan have been restored as they are also bringing more investors from their respective country to invest in SEZs.
He said these investors expressed their eagerness to explore the possibility of investment in diverse sectors of Pakistan especially in ceramics, chemicals, steel, food processing and automobiles. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan clearly directed them to focus on developing such industry in SEZs which is based on export and import substitution to restrict the import bill.
He said the good thing is that a number of Chinese industries have started pumping investment in SEZs and apparently the reason behind this is that the production cost in China has increased and another factor which is making Pakistan one of the beneficiaries of on-going US China trade war.
Mian Kashif also emphasized that consistent policies were imperative to attract foreign investment into the country, which could lead the economy towards sustainable growth.
He said industries operating in the FIEDMC will have an immediate access to high-quality infrastructure, un-interrupted power supply, public facilities and support services along with simpler ease of doing business.
