Investors to be facilitated to transform Pakistan a hub of manufacturing economic activities: SAPM

Faisalabad: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Affairs, Khalid Mansoor has said the government was taking comprehensive measures to provide maximum facilities to investors at economic zones with an aim to transform Pakistan a hub of manufacturing economic activities.

He was talking to the media at Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) office. FIEDMC Chairman Mian Kashif Ashfaq was also present.

He said the development work on CPEC phase-I was underway expeditiously and investment of $ 25 billion had so far been made in industrial estates under CPEC phase-I.

He said that $13 billion had been invested while another $12 billion investment was in the pipeline.

He said, “Now, we were working on CPEC phase-II, under which the foreign investors would be offered to make investment in much needed sectors of the country like agriculture, textile, pharmaceuticals, industry, IT and others”.

The SAPM said that two sectors-agriculture and textile would be specially focused in CPEC phase-II and maximum investment would be brought in these sectors.

About the security situation for Chinese, Khalid Mansoor said, “We have talked with law enforcement agencies for bringing a comprehensive security system for Chinese”.

To a question, he said that Pakistan wanted stability in Afghanistan, adding that stability in Afghanistan would provide more support to the CPEC.

Khalid Mansoor said that Pakistan was an agrarian country but unfortunately, we were far behind in boosting agriculture production due to certain reasons.

He said that legal issues faced by small medium industry who wanted to shift their industry into Allama Iqbal Industrial Estate’s special economic zone would be focused, and the same would be redressed

on priority basis.

To a question about negative propaganda being made by India, he said, he was informed that an investment of Rs 194 billion had been made in Allama Iqbal Industrial city so far, but it was not disseminated.

He urged for highlighting the investment projects of the country through social media to counter the negative propaganda.

The SAPM said the government had enforced a law and FIEDMC had also started implementation on it, under which plots in special economic zones would be canceled of that investor who didn’t start establishing industry after August 31.

Khalid Mansoor also visited Allama Iqbal Industrial City’s special economic zone and reviewed the development work there.

Earlier, he was briefed in details about the FIEDMC by the Chairman Mian Kashif Ashfaq.