ISLAMABAD: The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Committee of the Board of Investment (BoI) approved first allotment to a foreign firm as Zone Enterprise in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s Rashakai SEZ.

In a meeting held here, the SEZ Committee of Rashakai SEZ, allocated 40 acres of land to Century Steel (Pvt) Ltd.

The enterprise is owned by M/s Fuzhou Julitaihe International Company, a Chinese conglomerate engaged in manufacturing and sale of iron and steel products internationally.

Fuzhou Julitaihe International Company owns steel mills in Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Ethiopia with net capacity of 3,000 million tons of iron and steel products. The Century Steel (Pvt) Ltd plans to invest USD 50 million and will produce 0.25 million tons of steel products in their plant in Rashakai SEZ.

The project will consume 45MW electricity and employ 1,000 manpower directly and indirectly.

Resources from China have been mobilised and Chinese engineers and personnel are setting up a site office to execute the project without delay.

It is a first step towards industrialisation of KP as first Zone Enterprise from China has been admitted to the Rashakai SEZ.

Lots of applications have been received for plots and many industries will be starting construction shortly at the zone.

Rashakai SEZ comes under the CPEC umbrella and is the first industrial cooperation project between China and Pakistan.

The 1,000 acres SEZ will create 200,000 direct and indirect jobs and attract PKR 347 billion of investment. 10 MW of electricity at the zone has been arranged through 11kV feeder.

Work is in progress on the 160MW, 132kV grid station.

Due to its excellent location on motorway and proximity to Torkham Border and Central Asia, the zone is expected to be the game changer for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021