Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, has asked the board of directors to complete Lahore expo centre project on top priority basis to have a modern and art of the technology facility to boost up trade activities in the country. He gave direction during a presentation on the project here. The traders delegation, comprising former president Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Iftikhar Ali Malik, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries (LCCI) Mian Misbahur Rehman, Senior Vice President Suhail Lashari, Shaikh Arshid, Irfan Shaikh and other LCCI managing committee apprised the Prime Minister about the development on the project.
Talking to the delegation, the Prime Minister said that expos play key role in promotion of trade and exports and Lahore expo centre will turn upcountry into hub for commercial activities.
He said that the expo centre would cater the need of the country in the changing scenario of World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime and serve as an effective tool to give boost to trade and exports. The Prime Minister added that the government would provide all out help for early completion of the expo centre.
The FPCCI former president Iftikhar Ali Malik told the Prime Minister that the board was meeting on regular basis to review the progress of the project. He said the board would meet the deadline of February 2006 for completion of the expo to hold international exhibition in Lahore next year.
Iftikhar Ali Malik congratulated the Prime Minister for holding a very successful exhibition in Karachi early this month, which received from the international trading community.
It may be noted that over 600 delegates from 160 countries had participated in the exhibition.
The FPCCI had conceived the idea of setting-up Lahore Expo Centre in 2000, to have a modern expo centre for upcountry. The idea was appreciated at all levels. The government of Punjab provided 400 kanals land for the project.
The federal government provided Rs 600 million from export development fund (EDF) for the construction of the modern expo centre in Lahore.
A steering committee was formed to ensure early completion of the project. It was later on converted into a board of directors of Lahore expo centre.
The board is headed by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) chairman Tariq Ikram. Its other members are Iftikhar Ali Malik, the FPCCI representative and one representative of each of LDA and LCCI.
Nayyar Dada's services have been hired for architecture work of the project. He gave overview of the project to the board in the last meeting in Lahore. It also reviewed the progress made so far on the project.
Lahore expo centre will have all modern facilities of international standard. It included four centralised air conditioned exhibition halls, one spacious convention hall with 2000 seating capacity, one four star hotel to provide quality residence facility to the guests and participants of the exhibitions. It will also have children play ground, display centres, meeting rooms, library, fully equipped media centre.
Comments
Comments are closed.