KARACHI: A foreign conglomerate offered the Sindh government on Tuesday to build three state-of-the-art hospitals in Karachi on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.

The three health facilities the conglomerate — comprising German and Chinese entrepreneurs — is interested to set up in the provincial metropolis are a 200-bed cancer hospital, 200-bed organ transplant facility and an emergency centre with the facility of an air ambulance.

A delegation of the conglomerate — RETech German Group and China Rainbow International Investment Company (CRIIC) — along with their Pakistani representatives met Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah at the CM House.

They submitted their proposal that also includes a complete integrated farming system in the province with a farm-to-fork concept to cater to domestic and global demand of halal food.

Modern health facilities may also be established in other parts of Sindh

An official privy to the meeting told Dawn that the foreign delegation wanted to set up their projects on a BOT basis.

They would require 25 acres of land in Karachi for building a 200-bed cancer hospital and the organ transplant centre. The group informed the CM that it would invest a hefty amount of 270 million pounds for the two projects, the official added.

He said that the cancer hospital would also have proton beam therapy.

The third project is related to an emergency centre (having a 30- to 50-bed hospital) along with a trauma centre.

He said after Karachi the health facilities might also be developed in other parts of the province including Kandhkot-Kashmore, Thar, Thatta, Sujawal, Dadu and Jamshoro districts for the local population.

Once these centres are established in Sindh, the emergency centres would be supported/connected by a state-of-the-art ambulance service with trained and qualified manpower under the supervision of German experts.

Normally, the patients in small towns and cities of Sindh have to visit the nearest big town or a main city. However, these centres, when made functional, would lessen the burden of patients in government-run hospitals in main cities as the same will be handled by these emergency centres.

The CM listened to their proposals and agreed in principle to their offers.

He recalled that he had declared a state of emergency in the province’s health and education sectors. “We have achieved some results in the health sector and [are] striving for more and better results,” he said.

He directed the health department to have a meeting with the foreign delegation to discuss their projects and priorities and work out a process for implementation and put up a proposal to him with recommendations.

Sustainable farming

The sustainable farming project would be spread over an area of 2,122 acres with 1,204 skilled staff where 6,096 non-skilled staff would be required. This project would cost 732.16 million pounds.

The chief minister was given a presentation in which it was said that the firm jointly wanted to introduce a sustainable farming eco-system for producing poultry, beef cattle, goat/sheep meats and dairy cows.

The firm has expertise to develop and execute a complete integrated farming system, with a farm-to-fork business model in the province to meet both domestic and global market.

In the farm-to-fork concept, every aspect of farming — from breeding, feeding, growing, slaughtering, cutting, processing, packaging, storing and brand marketing — is operated under the highest global quality standards.

The meeting was told that presently 1.8 billion people all over the world want halal food and the halal market was growing rapidly.

The CM also directed the livestock department to meet the delegates and submit to him a proposal. “We have to introduce modern farming methods and technologies in the province to improve our agro economy,” the CM remarked.

CRIIC Chairman Li Dacan, RETech chief executive Arshad Raja and others represented the conglomerate.

Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Agriculture Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal, Livestock and Fisheries Minister Mohammad Ali Malkani, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, secretaries Sohail Akbar Shah, Fazal Pechuho, Sajid Jamal Abro and other senior officers were also present.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2017