PHOTO: AFP
LAHORE: The Punjab government has initiated a consultative process to assess various proposals through which data can be collected regarding industrial and urban planning. A consultative workshop was jointly organised on Friday by the government’s urban planning arm, Urban Unit, and Punjab Planning and Development department.
The session titled ‘Need of Industrial Census in Punjab’ aimed at discussing the industrial census and its expected contribution towards improving economic growth and urban planning.
Speaking at the workshop, Punjab Industries Secretary Khalid Sherdil said the session sought to incorporate the comments and questions of stakeholders carrying out the industrial census in the province.
He added the census would have 100% coverage and require no sampling at all. Various consultants were working on different modules to gather the best possible data as the government wanted to classify industries by activity, size, legal status, production scale and formal status.
Need of the hour
Participants said existing data indicated the province had around 18,000 large and medium industries, 93,000 small units and hundreds and thousands of cottage factories.
Punjab has three economic zones and Chinese companies are keen to invest here. This has given the relevant officials a chance to put their house in order. They insisted accurate data and public-private dialogue is the need of hour to develop a robust policy.
Effective management
“Should we spread out our cities is the key question faced by almost all countries in the world at the moment,” Urban Unit CEO Dr Nasir Javed said. “The sprawl and spread of city boundaries is inefficient and detrimental in our part of the world. We cannot afford to allow Lahore’s spatial footprint to double until we have managed resources.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd, 2016.
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