August 1, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21,1423

LONDON, July 31: Punjab Finance Minister Tariq Hameed said 56 sick industrial units were sold at Rs900 million to utilize dormant assets for country’s industrial development and provide jobs to the people.

He was speaking at a dinner hosted by UK-Pakistan Overseas Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Of the sold units, 50 per cent were already operating as the previous management did not have requisite skills to run these units, said Hameed who also heads a committee on revival of sick industrial units.

Hameed said there were 310 sick units and 34 had been revived while efforts were under way to make operative the remaining units.

He invited overseas Pakistanis to utilize the incentives for investment in Pakistan and play their role in economic development of their country. Overseas Pakistanis were not invited to give their bids for purchase of these units as they were not in good shape hence the government looked for domestic buyers.

There were many remaining industrial units to be sold hence he invited Pakistani expatriates to utilize this chance to invest in their country. He assured them that all these units were being sold through provincial High Courts to eliminate chances of any litigation after their sale.

Tariq Hameed said there were no special concessions for overseas Pakistanis but they would get 5 per cent rebate within sixty days of their payment.

Hameed said the country had earlier no Export Processing Zones (EPZs) but Punjab Government took the initiative and set up one in Sialkot which was almost complete. The second EPZ will be established in Gujranwala, which was being inaugurated on August 14. Third EPZ would be in Lahore while fourth in Faisalabad.

Hameed said all four EPZs would complete by the year’s end while Punjab government had taken many steps to remove bureaucratic hiccups and irritants for both domestic and overseas investors. For instance it had decided that inspection of boilers, electricity, motor vehicles in the province should be carried out by either private companies or individuals to cut interference of government’s inspectors.—APP