SHEIKHUPURA: The Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated on Monday that the industrial sector must use current technologies and alternative energy sources in order to be competitive in the global market. Speaking at the soft launches of the Ombre Special Economic Zone, Sundar Green Special Economic Zone, and Smart Special Economic Zone, the prime minister said that the only way to reduce the cost of local goods was to take advantage of the potential of solar, wind, and hydropower energy. According to him, the problem of circular debt, which was growing as a result of the annual loss of billions of rupees due to transmission and line losses as well as power theft, needed to be attacked on a war-footing basis.
The prime minister appreciated the private sector for chalking out a plan to establish the three special economic zones and assured all-out support from the federal and Punjab governments.
He said the commitment by the private sector to attract investment worth billions of rupees was also laudable, besides their plans to set up a three-megawatt solar power plant and other allied facilities like the vocational training center.
He hoped that the interim government would also take all possible measures to keep the national economy on track of progress, as the incumbent one was already making necessary legislation to pave the way for future course of action.
The prime minister told the gathering that an agreement between Pakistan and Azerbaijan for the import of LNG was signed earlier in the day under which the latter would provide an LNG shipment per month with the former having the option to purchase it or not, in accordance with the needs and without any penalty.
Similarly, he said, the private sector should also sign the deals with Qatar to import LNG for industrial use – not for sale in the market – and assured that the Federal Government would facilitate them at the Karachi Port.
Prime Minister Shehbaz also called for spreading the network of SEZs across the country. He said during Nawaz Sharif’s last government, the SEZs were planned across the country under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, but, despite complete mapping and other formalities, all the projects faced unnecessary delay, except Rashakai.
He said the agreement with International Monetary Fund was signed to ebb away the risk of default and put the country on the course toward progress.
The prime minister said as far as the SEZs by the public sector were concerned, the government would provide land free of charge to the investors, as it had done for the Bahawalpur Solar Park.
However, he said the use of SEZs’ land for non-industrial use would not be tolerated and recalled similar “misconduct” by some parties in Faisalabad and other SEZs where people had been minting money by selling out the land.
