Chinese investors pour $1.5b in Punjab in 3 years

Chief Minister’s Investment Cell set up to facilitate investors, remove hurdles

LAHORE:

Punjab has emerged as the best choice for Chinese investors and an investment of $1.5 billion has already been made by them in the past three years, said Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Chief Minister’s Investment Cell on Thursday, Buzdar revealed that Chinese garment group Challenge Fashion was set to pour $150 million into Punjab.

 Talking about the objective of the investment cell, the chief minister highlighted that it would facilitate investors and eliminate bureaucratic hurdles.

 “This cell will help investors to gain direct access to highranking government officials so they are able to resolve their issues,” he said. “To encourage business activities, the government will introduce a no-objection certificate (NOC) policy that will reduce the time taken for enterprises to acquire NOCs,” he said.

He pointed out that Challenge Fashion secured NOC within 14 days under the policy. The chief minister revealed that over 20,000 new job opportunities had been created due to business-friendly initiatives of the government.

“Boards of Punjab Industrial Estates Development and Management Company and Faisalabad Industrial Estates Development and Management Company have started functioning to provide better facilities to the investors,” Buzdar added. The CM stressed that the government was striving to promote trade and industry in the province.

“NOCs have been issued to 10 cement plants while approval for many other applications is in process,” he revealed. “There was focus on only two Special Economic Zones before the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf government came to power,” he pointed out. “Our leadership has started work on all 12 Special Economic Zones while industrialisation process has begun in eight of them.”

He said that the government granted the status of SEZ to four industrial estates and increased the number of zones from eight to 12. Besides, the Punjab Rozgar Programme has also kicked off, which envisages provision of Rs30 billion in loans to the needy youth, he noted.

“The government is also providing modern agricultural equipment to small farmers at subsidised rates to give a boost to agriculture and livestock sectors,” the CM said. “On the other hand, Kissan Cards have been issued to farmers.” He announced that the government of Punjab was taking part in Expo 2020, being held in Dubai, to showcase the strong socio-cultural and economic potential of the province before the world.