Caretaker Chief Minister of NWFO Shams-ul-Mulk has asked for a professional evaluated study through a credible consultant to identify to identify the factors that led to the failure of Gadoon Amazai industrial estates.
He wished a board of governors for the technical training institutions to make these institutions market-oriented. This, he said, while chairing a presentation on ROZs at the Chief Minister's Secretariat on here Friday. Provincial caretaker Ministers for Industries, Agriculture and Finance, ACS (FATA), Secretaries Industries, Finance, SDA Chairman, SDA Director and other concerned attended the presentation.
He said that failure of Risalpur processing zone was a setback to the otherwise calculated economic viability programme of the province. The concept of any planning for economic-oriented activity and most importantly in relation to the development of the provincial economy, its trickle down effect at grass root level and job opportunities, we must not be disoriented, he added.
He said that the location of sites for the ROZs should be in proximity to tribal areas so that these sites became a real opening for the development of these areas and improving the living condition of the people. The industrial units in the ROZs should be based on locally available raw material, he said.
The government should initiate infrastructure development in these ROZs order to make them attractive for investment. He said that there should be a two-member team as a nucleus to be responsible for setting targets, identifying the sites and the possible openings that should be followed by spirited efforts.
This team should have a mandate to work for the province and tribal areas simultaneously, he added. He said that there were problems to the rapid industrialisation of the province and "we need to find out a professional answer to these problems to make the Frontier province investment-friendly and suitable for industrialisation. However, the process could be successful provided all the stakeholders had a say in the decision-making and policy formulation.
Economic activity in all directions, particularly, led by the industrialisation of all sizes, should be a base that could find out solution to all the problems of the province, he said.
The only thing required was the efficient management to run the institutions with defined responsibilities that must work on merit and protect right of all, he added. The Chief Minister hoped that the ROZs would envisage economic development of the province, create employment opportunities and reduce poverty.
For this he stressed the need for strong institutional mechanism to raise the demands, and advised the concerned officials to follow the example of Jordan and Egypt where ROZs had already been set up and were functioning successfully.