Secretary Board of Investment (BoI)
Azher Ali Choudhry has said that the Establishment of Special Economic Zones
(SEZs) under CPEC framework based on Chinese experience coupled with active
involvement of private sector will attract both local and foreign investors
throughout the country.
He was addressing the participants of
training workshop on “Sharing knowledge in the area of Industrial Zones”
conducted by senior industrial experts from China. The workshop was also
addressed by Mr. Zhao Lijian, Chargé d'affaires Chinese Embassy Islamabad and attended
by officials from Provincial and Federal Government besides members of academia
and business community. The workshop is being organized by BoI and Ministry of
Planning, Development & Reform. It was agreed in 6th Joint
Cooperation Committee (JCC) to ensure transfer of knowledge in multiple sectors
including industrial cooperation between the two countries. The seven member
Chinese expert group is being led by Mr. Du Zhenli, Director China
International Engineering Consulting Corporation. Accordingly, the industrial
expert group is visiting Pakistan and has conducted workshops in Karachi and
Lahore in addition to undertaking visits to sites of SEZs in Sindh and Punjab.
Secretary BoI remarked that the basic
idea of an industrial corridor is to develop a sound industrial base, served by
competitive infrastructure for attracting investments into export oriented
industries and manufacturing. “Such industries have helped succession of
countries like Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan,
China and now even Vietnam rise from low-cost manufacturing base to more
advanced high-end exports”, he added.
He underscored that development of
SEZs will lead to reduction in the cost of doing business, increase in
industrial productions and exports, creates jobs and enhance the rate of return
to the developers and investors. He reiterated that the SEZs would play a
pivotal role in the economic development of Pakistan as has been witnessed in
case of China, and other states.
On the occasion, Mr. Azher Choudhry
highlighted that Pakistan offers a good environment to investors, with complete
freedom of choice regarding location of activities and full repatriation of
capital, profits and dividends. In addition, generous fiscal and tax
concessions are also available and these liberal economic policies had created
a very favorable environment and ambience for foreign investment in diverse
sectors, he added.
He told the participants that there is
an immense potential and prospects for Chinese and other foreign investors in
the country with 200 million people, which have growing needs in different
fields and sectors of Pakistan`s economy like energy, oil and gas,
infrastructure development, minerals, agriculture etc offer plenty of
investment opportunities to investors. He hoped that the Pakistani side will
seize this opportunity for meaningful interaction to ensure win-win results.
Speaking on the occasion, Chinese
diplomat Mr. Zhao Lijian said that business communities from both China and
Pakistan could benefit from these interactions. He reiterated that industrial
growth is the most modern way to maximize economic growth in a relatively short
time span and China’s experience in economic development provides a glaring
experience for benefit of all developing nations. “China’s GDP has grown
exponentially due to SEZs despite the fact that they were late to undertake
industrialization as compared to other developed nations”, he added. He hoped
that Pakistan will seize enormous opportunities enabled by industrial
cooperation under CPEC to maximize its economic growth.
Coordinator CPEC from Ministry of
Planning Mr. Hassan Daud gave a presentation on CPEC projects and updated
status. Answering a question, he told the participants that all stakeholders
including private sectors and business community are on-board and collectively
involved in CPEC industrial zones.
The training workshop aimed at
providing opportunities to learn about Chinese experience of developing
industrial parks for different sub-sectors for the fast industrial development.
Chinese Experts will share with participants about how China succeeded to
attract billions of dollars of foreign investment.
In addition to the training workshop,
expert group on industrial cooperation from both sides will meet today (17th
October 2017) to explore the way forward and discuss issues of mutual interest.
