17 July 2004	Saturday	28 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

QUETTA, July 16: The Federal Minister for Production, Liaquat Ali Jatoi on Friday announced that Export Processing Zone would be set up near Quetta.

He was speaking at a one-day Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Conference "The way forward" here at Governor's House, on Friday.

He expressed the hope that the local business community would invest in different export-oriented industries to boost this sector. He also announced that the government would provide gas to the Winder industrial estate and township in Lasbela district.

He said that the government was taking all possible steps for providing necessary infrastructure and would also provide financing facilities to the investors for establishing industries in different area of the country including Balochistan.

He said that as a result of these efforts being made by the government the jobs would be provided to the local people and businessmen would be able to earn profit.

He said that the government was making all possible efforts for speedy development of the province and construction of Gwadar port was part of the government plans to bring this backward province at par with other developed areas of the country.

He said that the government was aware of the importance of small and medium size entrepreneurship and has revamped the SMEDA to make it more effective and helpful for the people.

He said the government was ready to provide necessary assistance to the private investors in setting up of date and apple processing plants in the province. He said import of machinery required for these projects was already exempted from duty.

The SME Bank has reduced the mark up from 11 to 9pc to facilitate the businessmen and it is now up to them to come forward and set up industries in the province. He said the port would be ready for operation in 2005.

Later speaking at the conference the Governor Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani said that there was a lot of opportunities for developing small and medium business in Balochistan and it was the responsibility of the private sector to play its role in developing this important sector along with the government.

He expressed his satisfaction over the establishing of a handicraft training centre in Balochistan and said that this centre would help in preparing skilled people in the province and it would also create job opportunities.

The governor informed the participants about introducing trickle irrigation system in the province and said that it would need pipes on large scale through which an investment of Rs2 billion is expected in next two years in Balochistan.

He said that with the setting up of Export Promotion Zone in Quetta there would be a lot of business activities in the province. He said that the Ministry of Production had handed over Bolan Textile Mills to IT University Balochistan free of cost where government would establish a modern engineering institute having petroleum, mining, chemical, and marine engineering departments.

He said that Lasbela Textile Mills would also be handed over to Balochistan government for setting up University of Agriculture and Bio-Medical and Marine Sciences. The governor said that the government was implementing a project for shrimps farming and it was expected that shrimps of $1 billion could be exported annually from Balochistan.

He thanked the federal minister for taking interest in the industrial development of Balochistan. Earlier, Balochistan Minister for Industries Mir Abdul Ghafoor Lehri in his address called for close contact between the provincial government and SMEDA for development of small and medium size business in the province.

The chief executive officer SMEDA Shahab Anwar Khuawaja highlighted the aims and objectives of his organisation.