Board of Investment (BoI) rejected seven proposals referred by Punjab government for setting up special economic zones (SEZs) with an investment of billions of rupees, documents available with this correspondent revealed.
Haroon Sharif who took charge as Chairman BoI in September 2018 told Business Recorder, "Punjab only applied for three SEZs. They wanted to upgrade industrial estates. We need to understand what the issues are. That is why we deferred the decision".
Sharif further claimed that the price of land given that most of the SEZs are being transformed into real estate projects and the failure to hold a public hearing were major unresolved issues, sources said.
Approval committee of SEZs met under the chairmanship of Haroon Sharif on April 10, and was given a presentation by the provincial officials and investors interested in setting up SEZs in Punjab.
On December 8, 2018, Punjab Special Economic Zone Authority (SEZA) recommended seven additional SEZs for approval to BoI to operate in Punjab.
The total investment size of the projects recommended is estimated at Rs 27 billion which targeted to attract manufacturing concerns, leading to import substitution and creation of around 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, sources said.
The seven SEZs applications had been pending with the Approval Committee of BoI for the last four months. Punjab Board of Investment & Trade played a key role in drafting/evaluating the proposals of these Industrial Parks for declaration as SEZs.
The Board of SEZA Punjab deliberated in detail and unanimously approved proposals of seven Industrial Parks/Projects as Special Economic Zones in Punjab, and submitted them to Board of Approvals for final declaration. The list of priority SEZs included: Rahim Yar Khan Industrial Estate, Bhalwal Industrial Estate, Vehari Industrial Estate by National Industrial Parks Development & Management Company (PIEDMC), Rachna Industrial Park by National Industrial Parks Development & Management Company (PIEDMC), North Star Textiles Ltd (Zaamin Group), Roshan Sun Tao Paper Mills Ltd and Frontier Oil Company (Frontier Works Organization).
Punjab government maintained that setting up of seven SEZs will increase trade, create jobs and ensure effective administration of industries.
Board of Investment has remained unsuccessful in setting up a single SEZ in the country for the last eight months. The government has chosen four SEZs as top priorities for immediate groundbreaking: Allama Iqbal Industrial City (M3) in Faisalabad, Rashakai Economic Zone on M-1 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), China Special Economic Zone at Dhabeji (Thatta) and model ICT zone in Islamabad.
Under BoI Act, it is the Secretariat of Board of Approvals (BoA) and the Approvals Committee. The Secretariat provides all the necessary support to BOA and Approvals Committee to achieve the objectives of the Act.
During the last eight months no meeting of Board of Approvals has been called by Prime Minister Imran Khan to review progress in the establishment of SEZs.
As per SEZ Act of Pakistan, "SEZ is a blanket term for various types of specialized zones with specific types of enterprises operating in a well-defined geographic area where certain economic activities are promoted by a set of policy measures that are not generally applicable to the rest of the country".
Comments
Comments are closed.