The reconstituted board of directors of the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) will meet in Karachi on December 6 with Federal Industries, Production and Special Initiatives Minister Jehangir Khan Tareen in the chair. The new board of directors comprises leading businessmen of the country like Mian Mohammad Mansha, Altaf M. Saleem, Abdul Razzak Dawood, and Mian Mohammad Abdullah.
"PIDC will play the role of a facilitator to accelerate industrialisation process in the country, departing from its previous role of establishing new industrial units itself," Jehangir Khan Tareen told APP here on Sunday morning.
He said two subsidiaries of PIDC were being set up to take care of establishment of new industrial parks and technological up-gradation of the existing industrial clusters. These companies are: National Industrial Parks Development Company (NIPDC) and Technical Upgradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDC).
Tareen said the Monday meeting of PIDC board would also take final decisions about the chairmen and board members of these companies, adding that NIPDC would be entrusted with the task of setting up new industrial estates (industrial parks) on the pattern of Sundar Industrial Estate being developed near Lahore. Some of new industrial parks being developed by this subsidiary of PIDC on the basis of public-private partnership are: Korangi Industrial Park (Karachi), Bin Qasim Industrial Park (Karachi) in addition to those being developed in Peshawar and Balochistan, he added. He said the Korangi Industrial Park was being developed over 250 acres of land available with PIDC.
He said that TUSDC would help existing small and medium enterprises operating in the industrial estates or industrial parks acquire latest technology besides the playing of a catalyst in producing technically skilled workers for different SME sectors.
Responding to a question about mini-steel mills being set up by a Saudi firm, Al-Tawarki Group in Karachi, he said that all the irritants facing the project had been sorted out at a meeting recently held with the Group management, and added that the land required for the mini-steel would be provided on lease very soon.
He hoped that the expansion of Pakistan Steel Mills and the establishment of mini-steel mills would help bridge the gap between production and consumption of steel in Pakistan. At presently, the demand for steel in Pakistan stands at 4 million tonnes against the production of one million tonnes, he added.
About efforts to improve working of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda), Tareen said three groups on the sectors - Marble and Granite, Gems and Jewellery and Dairy Industry had been formed with the stakeholders as members to formulate sector-specific strategies to make these important sub-sectors of Pakistani economy more profitable.