Punjab Government is making serious efforts to provide congenial atmosphere for local as well as foreign investment in the province, said Amena Cheema, Chief Executive Officer, Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT). She was speaking to the business community of Faisalabad in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here on Tuesday.
She said that industrial growth was important for the overall progress and prosperity of Pakistan in addition to providing much-needed jobs to the unemployed youth. "The pace of local as well as foreign investment is not up to the mark because of short-term policies coupled with energy crisis and law and order situation," She said adding that Chief Minister Punjab was keen to expedite the pace of investment to achieve the growth rate of 7 percent. In this connection she was appointed in December last year and now she was making her best efforts to attract the maximum foreign investment in addition to convincing the local investors to play their role in the uplift of this province. She said that earlier, the private and public sectors were working in different directions and thus they failed to achieve the required results. She said her policy was to bring both sectors on one page in order to achieve the required results.
"One window system has been introduced in the BIT to facilitate the new investors and resolve their issues relating to various Government Departments," he said. Responding to a question, she said that JICA has established a special training centre in Faisalabad where 2000-3000 female workers were trained for the apparel industry. She asked the industrialists to give more jobs to the female workers as they could give better results as compared to the male workers.
"Chief Minister Punjab has allowed three economic zones in the province including one in Faisalabad that is M-3 industrial estate," she said endorsing the demand of FCCI that she would convince the CM Punjab to have a direct meeting with the local business community in order to dispel the mistrust and resolve their genuine issues on top priority basis. She further said that Hayat Holding is making an investment of $70 million in M-3 Industrial Estate while more Chinese and Turkish companies were also exploring opportunities to invest in this preferred destination.
Earlier in his welcome address, Chaudhry Muhammad Nawaz, President FCCI said that the FCCI was the third largest Chamber of Commerce and was contributing more than 50% to the national textile exports. He said that Punjab Government's Industrial Sector Plan 2018 was a commendable step which would promote industrial sector in this largest province of Pakistan. "We are convincing the Central Government to declare Faisalabad as Special Economic Zone which will catalyze the economic development of the area and national economy," he said.
Senior Vice President FCCI Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain in his address said that the Centre had been trying to facilitate the business community but the Punjab government had bitterly failed in providing any tangible relief. He said that federal government had successfully reduced load shedding of electricity to zero initially for the industrial sector. Similarly, the gas issue was resolved with remaining and petty issues relating to their tariff.
On the other hand, Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain said that Punjab government had neither taken the industrialists on board neither their issues had been resolved. He said that minimum wages had been increased without consulting them whereas the social security contribution and the EOBI rates were revised upward. Moreover, the environmental issues are also pinching the industrial sector while the PRA is also disturbing them with double taxation, he said.
The SVP further said that we had been demanding combined water treatment plants on two major drains in eastern and western parts of the City but work had not yet been begun on these important projects. Road infrastructure was also lacking in most of the small industrial estates whereas government was allowing residential colonies in and around notified industrial areas which would take a serious turn when the number of residential households in these areas would be more than the industrial units.
He said that only positive step Punjab government took was allocation of 50 acres of land in M-3 Industrial Estate for the construction of state of the art Expo Centre. However, this project would be completed with the EDF provided by the commerce ministry. He demanded that Chief Minister of Punjab should immediately take business community of Faisalabad into confidence to resolve their issues immediately.
He also pointed out that a new burden of group insurance had also been added on the industrialists despite the fact that the industrialists were already paying enhanced contribution of social security and the EOBI. He demanded immediate change in this act to save industrialist from this additional levy. Zia Alamdar Hussain was of the view that Punjab government should become voice of the industrialists of this province and take their issues at appropriate forum with the Centre as the provincial governments of Sindh and the KPK were protecting their businessmen. He said that it was irony that industrial sector in Punjab was getting gas at the rate of 700 mmbtu whereas the Sindh was getting the same utility at 468mmbtu.
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