Gorakh hill to be developed as tourist attraction

President Asif Ali Zardari urges public-private partnerships for development projects.

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that development projects should be started through public-private partnerships to boost growth and employment opportunities in the country and expressed his approval for the initiation of development of Gorakh hill station as a tourist attraction in Sindh. These remarks came at a meeting between the President and prominent stock broker and businessman Aqeel Karim Dedhi on Friday evening.

“The president took notice of the law and order situation and other hurdles faced by local business community and ensured that addressing these concerns is among the government’s top priorities,” said Dedhi, after the meeting. President Zardari urged stock market members to conduct international road shows in order to attract foreign investors towards local equities and to develop the country’s capital markets, enabling the private sector to reap more benefits of financing through these avenues, added Dedhi.

Dedhi also revealed that meetings will be held with Sindh tourism ministry and other relevant officials during the course of next week to discuss the possibility of development of Gorakh hill as well as the Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas motorway. He said that the project would cost an estimated Rs6 billion of which Rs2.5 billion will be financed through banks while the remaining amount will be invested jointly by the provincial government and the private sector.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2010.