LAHORE: The Punjab government and Asian Development Bank have agreed to enhance cooperation in housing, skills development, social, women empowerment and small industries sectors.

The census was developed during a meeting between Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President (Operations) Shixin Chen, held here on Friday. During the meeting, ongoing projects (in collaboration with ADB) and the current government’s priorities for future investments came under discussion.

The Minister told ADB that a comprehensive ecosystem is being set up to boost economic activity in the province and added that to facilitate investors the policy of ‘issuing NOCs in the shortest possible time’ is being adopted. “Apart from providing infrastructure for industrialisation, other incentives are also being provided while tariffs are also being revised to provide utility services at reasonable rates,” he added.

He further said that special investment is being made in education and vocational training to prepare the required labour and workforce.

The ABD Vice President expressed satisfaction over the Punjab government’s initiatives and assured the Minister of enhancing bilateral cooperation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022