PESHAWAR
A joint meeting of Islamabad-based economic research and industrial policy think tank “Prime” and Industries Department’s officers was held here at Civil secretariat on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Industries Commerce, Technical Education and Newly Merged Districts Affairs Dr. Aamer Abdullah.
Besides Secretary Industries Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company Javed Iqbal Khattak, officers of all subsidiaries of the department, representatives of SMEDA, Executive Director of Prime think tank Ali Salman, lead consultant and industrial Expert Imtiaz Rastgar and other relevant officers participated.
On this occasion consultation session was held between the representatives of the think tank and department’s officers regarding the promotion of industrialization in the province and policy matters in this regard and facilitating factors in business and trade wherein, useful views and suggestions were given from both sides.
In the meeting, the think tank also gave a detailed briefing to the caretaker minister and other participants regarding the responsibilities and services of its institution , in which they discussed the possibilities of setting up new export processing zones in the country, their identification of sites and policies required for their success.
Officials of the Department of Industry also informed the participants of the organization regarding the efforts and measures taken by the government in the province to create a conducive environment for the promotion of industrialization and to attract the industrialists towards availability of facilities in the industrial zones while participants also informed about the challenges in this regard.
Speaking on this occasion, the caretaker minister said that the KP government has started its faster efforts for industrial development in other areas of the whole province including in the merged districts. Keeping in view the potential areas of local investment of the merged districts, a feasibility study of economic zones has been conducted there. These areas will get more facilities from the government and work in this regard is on fast track.
He said that two feasibility studies are being done to bring the industrial zones on solar system in the province while digitizing and putting the KPEZDMC services on ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software system has been completed.
He added that this province will be first in the country to cross this milestone in the public sector and through this step, the company’s services will be available online and we can offer this facility to other provinces as well.
He said that the offices of the company have been converted to industrial facilities centers in the economic zones of the province for all the government facilities and services needed by the industrialists, the aim of which is to help the industrialists and investors without any interruption.
It was told in the meeting that efforts are being made to highlight the products of the province at the global level as well.
