With 29 full-fledged, medium and small industrial estates already existing in the province, does Punjab need more of them to boost industrial activity? The answer is in both negative and affirmative.
The negative aspect is that not all of the estates have realized their potential. Some of them are functioning productively and have flourishing units but alongside them are vacant lots that were meant for setting up an industry but have either remained unused or treated as land allotted at throw-away price and sold at a higher rate for a quick and profitable bargain.
The failures also represent faulty thinking and flawed planning of previous governments that tried to prove their good intentions and worth without working out nuts and bolts details. There were many a slip between the cup and the lip in the setting up of these estates and the two did not always make contact.
Favouritism in land sale policy gave some of the projects a false start while selection of sites was often questionable; it had no bearing on resources and needs of the area identified for an estate.
The well connected pushed some of the projects on the wrong foot at the very start. A major handicap was inadequate and low quality infrastructure facilities. officials also created hurdles for investors instead of facilitating their efforts.
These and some other factors caused the total or partial failure of some of the previous moves for providing impetus to industrial activities in the province to counter the rise of unemployment, minimize rural migration, maximize utilization of indigenous resources and make a greater contribution towards exports from the country. These requirements not only persist but meeting them has become more pressing in view of the population explosion.
This adds up to more urgent need for industrialization at various levels but with the condition that previous pitfalls are side-stepped and mistakes are not repeated. Possibly, one of the drawbacks of earlier ventures were their public sector commitment to implementation and a commercially oriented approach.
The handling of private sector industrial units by the public sector is hardly a success story and failures of industrial estates are additional evidence of the sector's limitations for work in a different field.
The present administration of Punjab seems aware of problems and is stepping into the industrial estates arena in the light of experiences of its predecessors. A private sector-public sector partnership has been struck for the latest attempt at further industrialization of the province. This is a positive move but lips and cups are still there and so are apprehensions of slips.
The task has been assigned to a newly created organization titled the Punjab Industrial Development and Management Company (PIEDMC) that has major participation of the private sector.
This bodes well for the venture, particularly as the company plans to undertake upgrading, improving and filling of gaps, wherever they exist in earlier industrial estate ventures.
Initially, the project is to set up an industrial estate about 35 km from Lahore and establish a garment city near Faisalabad, known as the textile capital of Pakistan.
Land is also being acquired near Multan for developing another industrial estate to generate economic activity in southern part of the province that economically lags quite a distance behind the rest of Punjab and where the feudal and religious elite commands the lives of the local people and bars progress.
The plan, as outlined by the organization, appears to cover all the important angles for an industrial conglomerate. Basic requirements have been identified and facilities like the supply of gas, electricity, water, etc, that consume tremendous time energy and financial resources of investors, are being organized by PIEDMC.
This should build the confidence of investors and give them a solid start for whatever industry they propose to set up. Many of the previous industrial ventures, both individual and collective under some public sector estate have, while their contribution to the industrial sector is not to be denied, have also grown into environmentally hazardous projects.
The latest venture emphasizes the provision of water treatment plants and arrangements for the disposal of solid waste. This is essential because Pakistan has been turned into an environmental disaster in many areas because of unhealthy practices in some of the industrial establishments.
Another drawback that mars the investment climate and discourages people is inefficient communication facilities; investors often have to knock from door to door for their installation and projects tend to fall behind schedules and become expensive because of non-availability of these facilities at the start.
If infrastructure facilities and communications network are laid down at the start, they are likely to be more positive in their approach and get down to work with greater involvement.
Similarly, social sector facilities like schools for the worker's children, housing colonies for labour, proper drainage, roads, transportation, medical facilities have also been promised by the PIEDMC. They should make the work force feel comfortable and well looked after, an experience that does not always come its way.
While Pakistan has some laudable industrial organizations, concern for the well being of workers is not the distinguishing feature of all of them. Mercifully, the thinking is changing and one hopes that the PIEDMC would have a healthy overall impact by fulfilling its pledges.
This area needs to be further augmented if the process of industrialization is to be turned in to a driving force for progress and meaningful exploitation of national assets not only in terms of raw materials but human resources too.
Inequitable treatment of work force has a negative effect on productivity and goes against the interests of investors but this factor is unfortunately often ignored because of greed or lack of realization of the role of the work force.
It is time the industrialist of the country developed, along with their ventures, sympathy in their hearts. A satisfied work-force has the capacity to be a dynamic component of any industry.
In this backdrop, the Sundar-Raiwind Road industrial estate looks a promising beginning but one hopes its managers also guide prospective investors about the areas in which they should invest.
What the country needs is better utilization of agricultural produce and provide incentive to farmers by offering them a market for their output and also help them change the traditional pattern of cultivation of small crops.
The cultivation of these crops is dwindling because of the absence of a profitable margin for farmers and disinterest of market forces in them due to the small profits they yield. But it must be remembered that they represent a vital area of agriculture.
New industrial ventures should not merely concentrate on industries that are already well entrenched but also focus on unutilized or underutilized potential of resources. From the look of things, PIEDMC appears qualified for the job.
One hopes it delivers what is required for overall industrial progress of the province and not turns out to be another opening for investments that are rewarding for the rich but stay short of the totality of national needs.
