Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives, Jahangir Khan Tareen has said that 'Dairy Sector Development Plan' approved by the Prime Minister would bring 'white revolution' in the country by generating more than 3.1 million new job opportunities through 11200 dairy farms in the next 10 years.
He was addressing the first meeting of the Board of Directors of 'Pakistan Dairy Development Company' emerged in the private-public partnership to manage implementation on the Dairy Sector Development Strategy evolved by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) through a private sector-led Strategy Working Group (SWOG).
The meeting held at Smeda head office was attended by Suleman Ghani, Federal Secretary, Industries, Ismaeel Qureshi, Federal Secretary Minfal, A Rauf, Additional Secretary Federal Ministry of Finance and Shahab Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer, Smeda, as Board Members from the government sector.
Faisal Farooq, Mumtaz Khan Manias, Abdul Qayyum, Ikramul Haq, Salman Nazir, Asad Omar and Faqir Mohammed Anjum attended the meeting as the Board Members from Private sector.
Tareen urged the Board to build an active and strong working team in the Pakistan Dairy Development Company to materialise the ambitious targets set for development of the Dairy Sector. He emphasised the running of operation of the company in line with the original planning so that various development phases can be completed well in time. He assured of the fullest co-operation of the government of Pakistan to make this venture a real success. He hoped that board members inducted in the company from government sector would be playing the role of facilitators in this project.
Later, the Board, discussing the agenda items, unanimously elected Faisal Farooq, a leading stakeholder of the Dairy Sector from private sector, as its Chairman and granted approval for appointing Tony Christensen, a world known dairy expert, as interim Chief Executive of Pakistan Dairy Development Company. The board also constituted Human Resource and Finance Committees and discussed the work plan at length on this occasion.
It may be mentioned that the Board is comprised of total 17 members, out of which only 6 members are from the government side, and 11 members have been taken from the private sector.
The newly formed company has initially decided to run a pilot project spreading over three years to set up more than 100 model farms with 3750 animals producing 15,000 litres milk per day. About 40-50 model farms are being established in the first year. Total capital cost of this project for the first three years is estimated at Rs 15142 million. The government has decided to provide Rs 481 million in the shape of grants and Rs 2032 million as loans, to be repaid in five years. Rest of the funds would be generated through private sector.
The company would also be setting up a Model Procurement Centre, a Centre of Excellence and a Market Development & Research Cell under this project.
Pakistan Dairy Development Company would work as the apex body for the dairy sector to lay a strong foundation of a modern dairy industry in Pakistan which would adequately meet the country's needs for milk and milk products by promoting larger farms and managing aggregate small holder milk supply through better milk collection, chilling and transportation infrastructure.
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