‘Re-invest earnings or get ready to lose them’

Construction of 1,320 megawatts coal power plants in Sahiwal inaugurated

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif urged the affluent Pakistanis on Friday to invest their wealth in the country rather than spending it on amassing private assets.

He was speaking at the inauguration of construction at the 1,320 megawatt coal power plants in Sahiwal.

Sharif said it was a pity that Chinese companies had shown confidence in the country’s economy but local firms were still reluctant to expand their investments in the country. He criticised people who had accumulated assets like bungalows, planes and helicopters rather than re-investing their savings in the economy.

“It is your national responsibility to re-invest your profits in the economy. The nation will not forgive you if you fail to do so,” he said. Furthermore, he said people would snatch the wealth of such investors if they did not take the initiative and invest it in the economy on their own.

The chief minister said under the agreement signed with the Chinese company the 1,320 megawatt power plants would start producing electricity from December 2017. He said the company had assured the government that construction would be completed by September 2017. He said no other power generation project in the country had been completed in such a short span of time. He said the construction company had also assured the government that the plants would be equipped with state-of-the-art environment-friendly technology.

Sharif said the twin coal power plants in Sahiwal would be the first of the kind in the country. “There is no other plant in the country generating power from coal,” he said.

Sharif said the country was facing a severe energy crisis when the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz formed federal government in 2013. He praised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his hard work that, he said, had led to the signing of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor agreement. He said $33 billion of the $43 billion pledged by China for development projects in the country was earmarked for energy generation projects. He said Pakistani had been in the middle of a war against terrorist outfits and it was remarkable that China had gone ahead with the agreement. “China could have chosen another country in the region to make the investment. It selected Pakistan because of our longstanding friendship,” he said.

Discussing progress on the national action plan against terrorism, Sharif saluted the security and law enforcement agencies for their achievements against terrorist outfits. He hoped that terrorism would soon be defeated and energy crisis solved, paving the way for the growth of the national economy.

Meanwhile, Sharif also criticised the sit-ins held by the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) in 2014. He said the sit-ins had adversely affected the economy. “The economy has yet to recover from the impact of the sit-ins,” he said. Sharif said because of the sit-ins the Chinese president had to postpone his visit to the country to sign the agreement last year.

Ruyi Group Chairman Qiu Yafu, Hauneng Shandong Power Company president Wang Wenzong, Chinese Consul General Yu Boren and State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali were also preset on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2015.