Economic growth: GSP Plus status will create 1 million jobs, says governor

‘Pakistani members of the UK Parliament lobbying to get the Bill approved’.

FAISALABAD:

“The bill to grant GSP Plus status to Pakistani textile exports will be tabled in European Parliament in January 2014…I will make efforts to get it passed,” Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar said on Sunday.

He was addressing the members of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Sarwar said eight Pakistani members of the United Kingdom Parliament were also lobbying for GSP Plus status for Pakistan.

“The country’s foreign exchange reserves will go up and the textile producers… would be able to enhance their exports,” he said.

He said textile was a major industry.

“It is facing crises like load shedding, gas outages, terrorism, high input costs... we are making efforts to overcome these problems,” he added.

Sarwar said, “GSP plus status will create at least 1 million jobs in Pakistan by giving a quantum jump to its exports to EU countries.”

“I have met ambassadors of Germany and Belgium in this regard…I’m also in contact with political parties in the UK for getting the Bill approved,” he said.

The governor said it was necessary that “we store water by building dams to generate cheap electricity.” This, he said, could boost the economy.

The governor said 7 million children in the country were out of school and many of those enrolled were deprived of clean drinking water, toilets and shelter.

“Provision of drinking water for 500-1,000 children costs only Rs400,000,” he said.

Sarwar said he would lanch a campaign with the support of international business community, non government organisations and philanthropists to provide facilities for schoolchildren.

Earlier, FCCI president Mian Zahid Aslam asked for an increase in the electricity quota for Faisalabad, commissioning of an abandoned 350 MW steam power station for Faisalabad.

He also demanded that the city’s airport be up-graded and the Gattwala Toll Plaza be shifted towards outskirts of Khurarianwala.

Aslam said a Lahore High Court bench and an Expo Centre should also be established in Faisalabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2013.