The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has called upon the government to consider early groundbreaking of Special Economic Zone under CPEC in Islamabad in order to boost industrial and investment activities in the region.
Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry President Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that Prime Minister Imran Khan during a recent meeting held to review progress on CPEC was informed that Rashakai-KP, Dhabeji-Sindh and M-3 Faisalabad-Punjab SEZs would be ready for groundbreaking by June this year, which was very encouraging. However, he said that groundbreaking of IT SEZ in Islamabad could get unnecessarily delay as the government has not selected any site or acquired land for this project so far.
He urged that government should strictly follow the timelines set for the development of prioritized SEZs to complete them on time.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that China had shown interest to establish over 100 SEZs in Pakistan under CPEC, but it was unfortunate that due to lack of interest from Pakistan side, only 9 SEZs have been approved so far for development.
He said that development of more SEZs under CPEC was of paramount importance to promote investment, industrialization and employment generation in Pakistan. He emphasized that government should consider increasing SEZs under CPEC to maximize their benefits for the economy.
He said development of more SEZs under CPEC would also put Pakistan on the path of sustainable industrial growth and urged that government should pay priority attention to this issue.=DNA