Women Business Park on the cards in K-P

New economic zones being established to give boost to economy

PESHAWAR:

A Women Business Park has been planned to promote women entrepreneurship in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa (K-P) and provide business-friendly environment to the women entrepreneurs.

This was disclosed at a meeting of the Economic Zones Development and Management Company held here with K-P Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair.

In order to put industrial sector on the track of sustainable development and to accelerate industrial activities in the province, new economic zones are also being established.

During the last fiscal year, four new economic zones were launched including Rashakai Special Economic Zone, Jalozai Economic Zone, Nowshera Economic Zone (Extension) and DI Khan Economic Zone.

Collectively around 300,000 new employment opportunities are expected through these initiatives. Besides, Ghazi Economic Zone on 89 acres and Chitral Economic Zone on 40 acres have been established and are expected to be launched in the next two months.

Ghazi Economic Zone is expected to create around 17,980 employment opportunities and Chitral Economic Zone 8,000 direct and indirect employments.

Special Assistant to the Chief Minister for Industries Abdul Karim, Industries Secretary Hamayun Khan, Principal Secretary to CM Amjad Ali Khan, KP-EZDMC CEO Javed Khattak and other senior officials concerned attended the meeting.

The participants of the meeting were given a detailed briefing about establishing industrial units in the existing and newly launched economic zones and those which are to be established in future in the province.

The forum was informed that an investment of over Rs31 billion had been mobilised while 1,290 industrial units had been setup in the existing economic zones.

It was further said that work on the revival of closed industrial units in the economic zones was in progress.

Besides, establishment of Women Bussiness Park has also been proposed to promote women entrepreneurship in the province.

The chief minister termed industrial development as one of the key priority areas of his government and maintained that a major investment was being made in this sector.

He directed the authorities concerned to ensure progress on all the projects in within the stipulated time and expressed satisfaction over the performance of K-P-EZDMC.

On the other hand, to boost tourism as per Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Vision, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has sent a letter to the federal government to establish restaurants and service areas with all modern facilities on highways and roads leading to the tourist spots to facilitate visitors in the province.

The letter has also asked the federal government to install a proper monitoring system for the tourists on the national highways and entry routes to the scenic places to record the exact data of visitors.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2021.