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Public and private sector stakeholders have identified various deficiencies in the draft Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Industrial Policy 2020-30 and have presented recommendations to bring further improvement in the policy to attract local, foreign investment and generate employment opportunities in the province.

The stakeholders are demanding the incorporation of the very definition of the industry in the draft policy to explain the problems and issues faced by cottage, small to medium size and large industry attract proposals for bringing revitalization in each industrial sector.

They are also demanding formal commitment of a specific amount on behalf of the government for the promotion of industrialization and economic development for next five years and bifurcation of the share of fund for promoting cottage, small to medium size and large size industry. In the present draft, the incentives are only focusing the medium and large industry and the document lacks provision of incentives for the promotion of industry from cottage to large size in the province. Since, the draft policy is being developed and implemented from 2020. Therefore, the document should highlight the economic performance of KP of last five years i.e. 2014-19 with the aid of pictorials and graphics for sector wise industry in comparison to that of Punjab.

Input from the business community in each sector i.e. cottage to large industry and academia may also be obtained while chambers and associations, private sector industrialists and domestic and international experts concerned with the economic development of the province may please also be consulted.

The draft also lack updated figures of population, so it should be updated on district wise basis along with percentage of male and female, literacy rate and percentage of skilled and unskilled labour available in each district of the province, so that policy statement for revised industrial policy may be worked out in better manner.

The policy should also mentioned the Provincial Growth Strategy and targeted potential sectors to achieve economic growth in manufacturing, service sector, tourism and mines & minerals etc. There is also a call for the clear mentioned of the short and medium & long-term initiatives in the document and identification of the areas wherein the provincial government would require support from the federal government for the implementation of the initiatives as well as required procedural support and coordination among the relevant departments of the federal and provincial government.

The policy is also lacking clarity that how the requirements of newly merged districts would be met through the proposed industrial policy. Though the executive summary of the draft lays special focus on the development of special economic zones (SEZs), but the key part of the document is silent about that.

The document is also not clear on the infrastructural facilities offered under the public-private partnership (PPP), whose development is stressed by the policy and proposed steps of the government such development.

It also lacks proposals on effective planning and streamlining of investments through PPP for the development of SEZs and its supporting infrastructure through private investors and kinds of facilitation required from the provincial and federal governments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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