A delegation comprising officials of provincial government and business community is likely to visit United States to lobby for establishment of the US-sponsored Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) in Fata and its adjacent settled areas.
The delegation during the visit will hold meetings with members of both houses of US Congress and lobby for the earlier implementation of the plan to benefit the people affected by the US-led war on terror in Fata and settled areas of the NWFP.
According to sources in Sarhad Development Authority (SDA), a provincial agency administering industrial zones in NWFP, the delegation would comprise Chief Executive, Fata Development Authority, senior security officials of both settled and tribal areas and representatives of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) and industrialists association of the province.
The ROZs idea was floated by US President Bush in 2006 on both sides of the Durand Line, Pak-Afghan border. The products of the industrial units in the zones would have zero-rated access to US market.
The aims and objective of the establishment of such zones was basically the initiation of economic activity in the poverty-stricken and backward tribal region of Pakistan. The economic experts and analysts of the current wave of militancy are citing poverty a basic cause behind sheltering foreign terrorists.
"The provincial government had completed its homework including the identification of the sites for the proposed ROZs," the officer said on condition of anonymity. He said that the facilities would be established in tribal region or the already existing industrial estates in settled areas and are adjacent to the tribal region.
The recommendation regarding establishment of the zones in the settled areas adjacent to tribal region has been taken while taking the infrastructure facilities available in such estates, which is rare in Fata. Although the official declined to disclose the names of the proposed sites, but it was understood that the Hayatabad Industrial Estate, Export Processing Zone (EPZ) Risalpur and Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estates have been identified as potential sites for the establishment of the proposed ROZs.
Both the Governor and the Chief Minister have described the ROZs plan as of immense significance for NWFP and Fata, saying that the locations of the ROZs should be such that could benefit the people of both the province and tribal area.