The government has formed Pakistan Textile City Limited (PTCL) and got it listed with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as a limited company to make its textile cities plan a reality before the end of the current fiscal year.
Secretary Industries and Production Javed Ashraf Hussain gave away salient features of the plan during his talk with Business Recorder here on Wednesday.
He said that Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has granted approval of the new company's board of directors, and its ground-breaking in Karachi, the first of the three cities, would be ensured before May 15.
It would be followed by two more 'PTCLs' - one in Lahore and another in Faisalabad - not later than August 31 this year.
Javed said that Prime Minister Jamali has approved the constitution of its board of directors.
All parties to the plan have been given representation on the board. Secretary Industries and Production, Secretary Commerce, Secretary Finance and Secretary Economic Affair Division (EAD) would represent the government. One member would be from the industry whereas five members would come from 10 institutions for one year on rotation basis.
The major shareholders from the government and corporate sector have been given representation on the board. These include National Bank of Pakistan Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Export Processing Zone (EPZ), PIDC, Pak Steel, PICIC, Pak-Libya, Pak-Oman, Pak- Kuwait and Saudi-Pak companies.
Five members would representatives on the board on rotation basis for one year.
The board is likely to meet in Islamabad, probably on April 14, to approve the terms of reference for the PTCL.
It is also expected to approve the appointment criteria for the slot of PTCL Chief Executive.
The Secretary said that PTCL board would not change for any of the three cities since the ex-officio members and other shareholders are the same for all the cities.
Javed said he was confident that textile cities project would add $ 1.5 billion to Pakistan's exports per annum and the same idea can be applied for other sectors such as engineering software and several others.
He said that the idea of setting up 'exports oriented cities' would help Pakistan achieve diversification in exports since phenomenon of one item exports could be risky for the country if the dominating crops crashes for any reason.
Javed is an optimist like many other promising officials who believe that Pakistan would stay in the international market as an important player by keeping up with its upwards trend in exports due to better quality and low cost products.
All what, in his opinion, Pakistan needs to do to achieve this end is putting in a system which ensures fair play to all stakeholders.