Fed govt approves setting up 10 SEZs

Prime Minister Imran Khan approved the establishment of 10 special economic zones (SEZs) in the four provinces of the country.
Five of the 10 SEZs will be established in Punjab (Bhalwal, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Vehari and Allama Iqbal SEZ), two each in Sindh (Naushahro Feroze and Bhulari) and Balochistan (Bostan and Hub) and one in Khyber Pahtunkhwa (Rashakai).
The prime minister who presided over a meeting of the board of approval for the SEZs, Prime Minister Khan said the purpose of setting up special economic zones was to provide facilities and incentives to the business community.
He said the government was committed to providing ease of doing business and a favorable environment to the business community to generate economic activity in the country.
The government has notified 13 SEZs so far while work on setting up 12 more in the public sector and six in the private sector was in progress.
The meeting was told that after approval of law for the SEZs in 2012, only seven special economic zones were set up in the country till 2018, while the incumbent government had notified six new zones in a single year (2019).
The meeting was briefed about the industries to be set up in the new special economic zones. The meeting decided that all matters about the SEZs` establishment would be resolved in consultation with the provincial governments.
The meeting also decided to provide facilities of electricity and wheeling of power transmission to power generation industries in the special economic zones.
The prime minister directed the authorities concerned to set up a working group comprising the ministers for planning and energy, the commerce adviser and others for the establishment of the SEZs, and making the required laws and regulations easier to provide facilities to the investors and businessmen.
The working group will submit its recommendations about the special economic zones to the prime minister.
Minister for Planning Asad Umar told the meeting that work was in progress to formulate an economic growth strategy regarding Gilgit-Baltistan, which also included the progress of the industrial sector.
The prime minister stressed the need for utilizing the tourism potential of Gilgit-Baltistan and the establishment of special economic zones there