The Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) will soon get another 200 acres of land for Karachi Export Processing Zones (KEPZ). This was disclosed by the EPZA Chairman, Lieutenant Colonel Syed Akbar Khan (Retd), while responding to newsmen's questions in a radio conference, "Bil-Mushafa," here on Thursday. He said the EPZA had demanded 2,000 acres of land to make the city a strong base of export-oriented industries, with view to enjoying natural benefit of the sea.
Lieutenant Colonel Akbar (Retd) said another 100 acres of land, which was divided into 240 plots of 1,000 square yards each, was being developed.
The applications so far received from the investors were in excess, he added.
The EPZA chief said those two multinationals, YKK and Samsung, had showed interest to invest in the KEPZ, and hoped that more would come in.
When his attention was drawn to slow rate of the investment at the EPZs, he held inconsistent government polices of the investment and trade mainly responsible for the situation.
"Our exporters are also shy to invest their money here for the same reason," he said.
To a question if the law and order situation contributed towards poor response from the investors, he denied, saying: "In Karachi, people can walk even by 2 am on roads and streets while in Washington, no one can do the same.
"The law and order situation has been wrongly propagated by certain outside forces, which are hostile to Pakistan's rapid economic growth," he added.
The EPZA Chairman said the EPZs were first introduced in the country in 1960, now those processing zones would be set up at more than two dozen places in the country.
The EPZ in Risalpur had already started functioning with the exports of Rs 120 million during 2003-04, while the work on the Sialkot EPZ was going on and it would start export within the next six months, so far five factories had been set up there.
He said that there was high response to Saindak in Balochistan, which had been declared the EPZ, and added the Saindak project, run by the Chinese company, had made the exports worth 54 million dollars during 2003-04, with 16,000 tonnes copper exports, including 5,000 tonnes gold.
There was 57 percent increase in investment in Saindak from 129 million dollars to 200 million dollars, and more than 1,200 locals were employed there, he said.
He acknowledged that Pakistan's neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh and China, had witnessed high rate growth in their exports.
In 1980, Pakistan's exports stood at three billion dollars, while China's total exports were 18 billion dollars. Now China had gone so far by 439 billion dollars exports in 2003-04 and we achieved 11.5 billion dollars, he said.
Pakistan started its EPZs from Karachi, the international centre of business, while China had launched its first EPZ in small fishing village of Chinxen, which now ranked number one in the exports with 10,000 industries and more than 50 billion dollars output, he added.
Instead of importing from outside, he emphasised, "we should import from our own EPZs to encourage the investors."
When pointed out that there was cosmetic investment at the KEPZ, he said he had taken certain decisive measures in that regard and the situation had changed. Now an investor would have to set up industry within one-year period after allotment of land by the EPZA, he added.
He agreed that there were some investors, who manufactured their goods under the band of developed country like "made in Japan, made in Korea."
The EPZA Chairman underlined the need for clear direction and national commitment for economic growth, including increase in the exports.