An Expo Centre at Tarnab farm is planned to promote agro-based products and businesses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Rs2.5bn project will be financed under the federal public sector development programme for 2016.

Products with export potential like honey, fruits, seeds and pesticides locally developed at the Tarnab Agriculture Research Institute will also be exhibited at the proposed Expo Centre.

Tarnab is located in close proximity to Jalozai, Rashakai, and Risalpur economic zones which are to be developed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company (KPEZDMC).

Chief Executive Officer of KPEZDMC, Mohsin M. Syed told Dawn that the Expo Centre will promote agro based products and businesses. He said that around 13pc of the total applications for the Hattar Industrial Zone were for food processing. The prospective investors are coming to set up concentrate, frozen food and juice plants. The province produces abundant vegetables and fruits, but marketing is a major problem for producers.

‘The proposed Expo Centre will provide a single platform for interaction, and promotion of commercial transactions, for the business community’

Mr Mohsin said the proposed Expo Centre will provide a single platform for interaction, and promotion of commercial transactions, for the business community.

KP has allocated 200 kanals of land at Tarnab for the Expo Centre to be built in accordance with international standards, comprising of conference halls, auditoriums, meeting rooms, a separate area for exhibitions with built in stalls and pavilions and spacious parking lots.

A Peshawar-based industrialist said the Expo Centre will provide an opportunity to local exporters and industrialists to introduce their products at an international level and get a chance to widen their customer base.

At the moment most of the products manufactured in the province are either consumed within the country or exported to Afghanistan. KP produces a wide range of goods that are traded, or have potential markets, in Afghanistan.

The KP government has also requested the federal commerce ministry to establish an expo centre at

the site of the proposed Rashakai Industrial Estate

According to an official report of the KP planning department, the province produces a wide range of goods including cigarettes, cement, ceramics, sanitary-ware and wall tiles, cotton textiles, blankets and fabrics, electric bulbs, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals, matches, paper and board products, maize, sheet glass, paints and varnish, beverages, sugar and starch.

The processed food industry, including vegetable ghee and cooking oil products, also has a considerable presence in KP and contributes over 30pc to the country’s total ghee production. KP also produces 30pc of the country’s cigarettes and 27pc of cement.

The Expo Centre will host activities and events including international level exhibitions throughout the year providing producers a chance to showcase their products to international buyers.

Buyers and sellers will be brought together by organising exhibitions, business to business meetings, business conferences etc.

Realising the importance of the project, the KP government has also requested the federal commerce ministry to establish an expo centre at the site of the proposed Rashakai Industrial Estate.

The province has also offered to provide a more suitable site at Rashakai Industrial Estate at M-1 Motorway. The KP government is working to establish a state of the art economic /industrial zone at the 1000 acres of fully acquired land that includes the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway. The zone will be connected with the CPEC.

The KP industries department has offered 50 acres to the ministry of commerce for the expo centre as it considers Rashakai a more suitable choice for the project.

Mr Mohsin M. Syed says the commerce ministry has agreed to the proposal for the second expo centre. In the Hattar Industrial zone construction on more than 20 factories has already been started.

“We will sell all plots to prospective investors by the end of the current year,” he said.

The PTI government has speeded up work on all these projects and is expected to complete them before the next general election in 2018.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, September 5th, 2016