May 06, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1429

PESHAWAR, May 5: The local investors have opposed establishment of the US-sponsored Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) outside Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) arguing that people would then invest in settled areas because of the law and order situation there.

“The idea (behind these zones) to bring prosperity and investment in Fata wouldn’t get materialised because the prevalent law and order situation would scare the investors away,” Ghulam Sarwar Khan Mohmand, former president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce told Dawn on Monday.

Mr Mohmand, who was part of a meeting held with a US delegation on Monday, said that they suggested setting up of these ROZs on the border areas between Fata and NWFP and added that the proposed plan might not facilitate tribesmen if these were also set up in the other parts of the country.

Senior officials of Fata Development Authority and investors from the tribal region in the meeting discussed the establishment of ROZs in Fata. Officials of the US embassy in Islamabad Amy Holmam, Jonathan Ducker and senior officials of the federal ministry of trade and commerce attended the meeting.

Mr Mohmand, said that initially the US government had specifically proposed its establishment in the tribal region, but now it had been planned to establish them also in parts of the country, other than Fata.

“If such zones are established in Sindh, Punjab and other parts of the country, then people will not invest in the tribal region,” he said as having told the US dignitaries about the construction of zones.

“If they (Americans) are establishing industrial zones in Lahore, Karachi or Rawalpindi then it will not benefit the tribesmen,” remarked Mr Mohmand. He said that the major hurdle in the establishment of ROZs was instability in the region and unless US government brought Pakistan and Afghanistan politically close, such initiatives might not bring any change.

Mr Mohmand said that they also proposed to take into account the prevalent energy crises before going for the establishment of ROZs. In this connection, he said, they suggested to the visiting delegates about ways and means for tapping hydel resources and coal deposits in the settled areas of the NWFP and Fata.

Meanwhile, official sources said that an assessment to help inform decision-makers on the possible scope and feasibility for future ROZ opportunities in Fata has been completed. Under the plan local investors will have access to export products manufactured in ROZs to the US markets for fifteen years without duty.

They said that the delegation informed investors that the matter was still under discussion with the US lawmakers. The delegation assured that work on ROZs would be started after House of Representative passed the bill.

The plan was proposed in 2006, but the House of Representatives has yet to pass the bill. An official source said that the process was very slow and it would take time. “What is the actual story, we don’t know,” he said.