Malik Asrar Ahmed Awan, President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) has assured USAID that MCCI would extend co-operation for carrying out Pakistan trade project, aimed at facilitating local exporters & importers. Exchanging views with USAID Project Manager Muhammad Saeed and Gender Specialist Shagufta Naz, MCCI president said Pakistani products in general and South Punjab products in particular would get access to world markets.
USAID managers said they are developing a database of south Punjab on exports and imports to facilitate global buyers. Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) is already persuading USAID, different donors and fundraising agencies for executing Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry's management marketing business (MMB) master plan. Senior Vice President MCCI, Khawaja Muhammad Usman said importers, exporters and interested members can get registration forms from the chambers.
He said USAID would install 200 new energy efficient tube-wells in 13 districts of South Punjab and would upgrade 11,000 tube-wells across Pakistan, making them energy efficient to consume 20 percent less electricity than other tube-wells. Of these, some 1,100 tube-wells would be upgraded in South Punjab.
He further said tube-well owners could contact USAID directly or through MCCI to get their water lifting equipment upgraded, reducing its operational cost. Usman said South Punjab has the potential to save 25 to 30 percent of energy used in the agriculture sector by making the existing tube-well system energy efficient.
He said the present regime was considering the option of improving energy efficiency of existing tube-wells through retrofitting and/or replacing the existing inefficient pumping systems with efficient equipment an replacing/supplementing existing source of power (grid electricity) for driving tube-wells with renewable energy resources (solar and wind).
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