Govt to establish leather industry in Charsadda

Interest-free loans will be given to cobblers to boost industry.

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to set up a leather industry in Charsadda to give an opportunity to local manual workers and shoe manufacturers to increase their incomes.

“Charsadda is famous for shoemaking as a large number of local artisans are associated with the leather industry that needs to be encouraged on modern lines to take full advantage of their potential,” an official of the industry department said on Monday.

He said interest-free loans would be given to shoemakers to give a boost to the leather industry in the province, adding that facilitation centres would be established in Charsadda to educate workers.

The official said the Sarhad Development Authority would set up new industrial estates and economic zones and will complete granite zones in Mansehra district for reviving industries affected by military and terrorism. Under the mega project, he said, existing industrial estates would be rehabilitated and modernised in Peshawar. In addition, new industrial estates would be established in Peshawar, Abbottabad, Hattar and Malakand. The official said there was ample opportunity for various goods to be exported to new markets, especially those in Central Asian Republics, adding that the government was committed to producing skilled manpower, essential for industrialisation of the province.

Four polytechnic institutes, six commerce colleges, five technical and vocational institutes and two government colleges for management sciences would also be established. Up to Rs2,382 million had been allocated by the provincial government for 74 projects for developing the industrial sector, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2011.