The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) has prepared a multi-dimensional plan for the promotion and modernisation of light engineering industry of Daska, Multan and Faisalabad, said Smeda Punjab Chief, Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry.
Talking to reporters here on Saturday evening, he said that in order to promote agriculture industry on modern lines under the programme centres for agriculture implements would be set up at Daska for extending facilities to manufacturers.
Similarly, he said that Foundry Service Center would be established at Faisalabad to facilitate textile and agriculture sector. The proposed center, he said would produce textile and agriculture machine parts at local level. Besides, light engineering service center would be set up at Multan for helping gaining and auto parts manufacturers, he added.
The Smeda has also prepared a multi-pronged plan costing Rs 486 million for setting up of agro food processing facilities center in Multan, Gujranwala Business Center in Gujranwala and Sports Industries Development Center in Sialkot.
Alamgir Chaudhry said that Agro Food Processing center Multan would be set up at cost of Rs155 million and the objective of the project was to provide processing facilities for "Pulp extraction" of various fruits, including mango and guava etc, he said.
He said the project would also facilitate local growers to prepare tomato paste, puree and would lead to value addition as well as introduction of latest technology in food processing industry of the country.
The agro food processing facilities center, he said would be based on common facility centers that help minimise the post harvest losses, which are estimated 30 percent in fresh fruits and vegetables.
The proposed facilities would provide exposure to growers about the latest fruit and vegetable processing technique, as currently growers were not familiar with the latest processing techniques that could add value to the product and fetch lot of foreign exchange through exports, he added.
The Smeda provincial chief said that Multan was known for its fruits and vegetables and is contributing a lot towards the Agro-economy of the country, adding that 30 percent fruits and vegetables were wasted due to negligence and lack of processing facilities.
The proposed project would help reduce losses of agriculture produce of Multan region and would introduce latest technology and processing facilities to the local growers, besides the project would increase the income of grower through boosting exports of the country, he said.
He disclosed that the government had also approved the establishment of 'Gujranwala Business Center' at a cost of Rs58 million in Gujranwala. The step was being taken to provide a single promotional and display platform for a range of products manufactured in Gujranwala aimed at attracting national and international buyers, he added.
The main benefits to accrue from the project are provision of tool to market 'Made in Gujranwala' as an international brand, facilitating SME to effectively display their products for marketing at national and international levels, increased exposure for local business community to international business trends and ability to benchmark with the contemporary product standards besides general compliance with international trade regulatory regime and motivation for improvement at all levels of value chain, including product designing, quality, packaging and presentation etc, resulting in value addition.
Alamgir disclosed that Sports Industries Development Center at a cost of Rs 273.11 million would be set up in Sialkot enabling the sports goods sector to adopt new technology of mechanised ball, which is threatening the current hand-stitched inflatable soccer ball.
Benefits of the project are to facilitate in sustaining Pakistan's position in international market of hand stitched inflatable balls in general and soccer ball in particular, provide skilled workforce to the sector, help develop imported machinery locally through reverse engineering, providing assistance in setting up mechanised ball production lines in individual industrial units, developing proto type balls for the industry and developing quality vulcanisation and pasting molds etc. The work on these projects would be undertaken shortly, Alamgir Chaudhry added.