PIAF Calls For Reviving Sick Industrial Units

(@FahadShabbir)

PIAF calls for reviving sick industrial units

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th july, 2016) : Appreciating the new industrial zone of 2,000 acres in Chunia, the Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) on Saturday urged the government to also establish separate industrial zones for SMEs and cottage units, besides reviving the sick industry all over the province. Talking to newsmen here, Front Chairman Irfan Iqbal Sheikh along with Senior Vice Chairman Tanveer Ahmed Sufi and Vice Chairman Khawaja Shahzeb Akram said the revival of such units would also provide jobs to the jobless if the government provided them with required working capital to take benefit of the GSP Plus status granted by the European Union. He said Chinese investment in Pakistan was a welcome step which would increase manifold in the days to come and a number of projects were being completed in Punjab with an investment of billions of Dollars by the Exim Bank.

The PIAF chairman said Chinese financial institutions were playing a historic role in the promotion of Pak-China cooperation through timely and uninterrupted completion of projects in Punjab.

He said that Chinese investors would set up factories in the industrial park spreading over an area of 2,000 acres under the agreement. He said there was a need to explore new avenues for strengthening contacts between the two countries. The chairman proposed that existing industrial units should be exempted from taxes, and new industrial zones, estates and clusters should be established away from the densely populated residential areas, especially alongside motorway or major roads to accommodate for relocation of industry from residential areas.

The cost of land in these industrial zones should be less than the cost of land in the urban areas, while there should be better environmental conditions. Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that Punjab Industrial Estates Development and Management Company (PIEDMC) should take steps to utilize the available space in existing export processing zones to set up new clusters for SMEs and cottage units.