A consortium of business schools on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to conduct research on relocation of industries to Pakistan from China lacks the capability to accomplish the task due to limited capacity of their researchers in this field.
In view of this bottleneck, federal government has decided to shortlist five to six international consultancy firms to conduct feasibility/research studies to promote industrialization and exports under CPEC, revealed the official documents available with Business Recorder.
The consortium of top business schools including both Pakistani and Chinese institutions was formed last year to engage the academic sector for applied research on various industrial and business opportunities related to CPEC. Higher Education Commission (HEC) formed this consortium of business schools and then Federal Minister Planning & Development Ahsan Iqbal termed this consortium a step forwards successful execution of CPEC at it's the launching ceremony.
According to the official documents, the decision was taken at a high-powered meeting last month to review the progress on CPEC projects and took various decisions about these projects.
The meeting also discussed the issues related to special economic zones and observed that there is no more space for procedural delays as Pakistan is already facing challenges vis-à-vis promotion of industrialization.
Meeting also decided that investigate work would be launched for public private partnership for financing special economic zones. Moreover, financial strategy would be developed for land acquisition as it is beyond the finances of federal and provincial governments.
The meeting also decided to establish a committee of secretaries to expedite the industrialization process as well as making Pakistan Business Council and leading economists of the country part of discussions on industrialization to unleash the potential of Pakistan industries and open Pakistani markets to the world.
The consortium of business schools include Fudan University, Shanghai; Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong; Nanjing University, Nanjing; Peking University, Beijing; Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai; Tsinghua University, Beijing; University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei; and Zhejiang University, Hangzhou are part from Chinese side.
Whereas, Pakistan the institutions in this consortium include Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), Quetta; COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad; Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi; Institute of Management Sciences (IMS), Peshawar; Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore; National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad; Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad; and University of the Punjab, Lahore.