Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday reiterated his call for the nation to unite on Charter of Economy to ensure the consistency of economic policies and put country on the course towards progress and prosperity.
The prime minister, addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of Islamabad Model Special Economic Zone, said with the signing of IMF agreement, the risks for default had ebbed away and the country would have to focus on boosting exports to compete with the neighboring states particularly the eastern neighbor.
He said the Islamabad Model Special Economic Zone was launched with a delay of five years as nine SEZs were planned to be built under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
He said despite the land and designs finalised for the SEZs in Punjab, the previous government not only impeded the projects but also made conscious effort to undermine the Pak-China ties.
The prime minister, who earlier broke ground for the project and penned a testimonial, said that during Nawaz Sharif’s tenure, $30 billion Chinese investment came to the country in form of CPEC featuring power and road projects.
He told the gathering that after the Chinese industry gone hitech, Pakistan had the golden opportunity to learn from the Chinese textile expertise, go for joint ventures and bring Chinese second hand machinery to Pakistan to boost its exports. He said during last 14 months, the incumbent government remained in the “fire-fighting” as it had to cope with the unprecedented floods and record inflation begotten by the Ukraine war.
The prime minister said after the IMF agreement, the government would mainly focus on boosting industrial and agriculture sectors. He told the gathering that a Special Investment Facilitation Council had been established with a mandate to attract investment to the agriculture, mining, information technology and exports sectors. He said the government would abide by the IMF agreement which had laid a basis for the economic reforms.
Citing the Bangladesh’s $40 billion export of imported cotton, the prime minister said the successful nations always learned lessons from the past mistakes strived to cope with the challenge. “Now we will have to get out of the loans and attract investment. This is what the Model Special Economic Zone is for to attract investment from China, UAE, Qatar and others to take Pakistan at par with the neighboring nations,” he added.
Prime Minister Shehbaz said in the past, the SEZ turned into the development estate and the people have been minting money. Emphasising the provision of land to the investors in SEZs on easy terms, he said the land in the Bahawalpur Solar Park was leased out at just $1 to the investors which was inevitable for the investors to save its capital to set up the industry. He also called for establishing a mechanism to cancel the lease agreement if the investor failed to develop the industry within the specified timeframe.
In his address, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said after 2020, the establishment of nine industrial zones was agreed under CPEC but the previous government put all the projects to the backburner. The officers were implicated in the false cases which begot a crisis of decision making, he added.
He said the incumbent govt took up the SEZs on priority basis and started reviving the stalled projects as Rashakai SEZ was about to be inaugurated.
Emphasising the execution of 5E framework, the minister said the country had no other option but to take its exports to $100 billion. These SEZ will act as a powerhouse to boost exports, he remarked and suggested that the land should be provided on easy terms to the investors. Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Syed Murtaza said with the establishment of Islamabad Model Special Economic Zone, a longstanding demand of Islamabad’s industrial community would be addressed. Highlighting his ministry’s performance, he said they addressed the anomalies in the processes like the import of solar panels and that the petrochemical and coal gas policies would be finalised by July 30.
He called for taking advantage of Pakistan’s cheap labour and creating an ease of doing business environment in the country. Secretary Board of Investment Asad Rehman Gillani said that PM’s vision of “investors are my masters” gave the government machinery a strength to execute the projects.
He told the gathering that SEZs would help develop the people-to-people and business-to-business contacts.
He said the Islamabad SEZ would be established over 1000 acres of land on the junction of N-5 and Islamabad Expressway and would create around 1000 jobs. Another industrial zone is already functional in the nearby area, he added. The BOI Secretary said the industry with low-carbon footprints would be established in the Zone which would bring in an investment of around $2.5 billion.
