ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: The federal government will announce on Saturday an incentive package to foreign and local companies for setting up ultra-modern grain silos in the country but primarily in Karachi.

Official sources told Dawn that Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet that meets here on Saturday would discuss an “even-handed policy” to develop private sector silos with the storage capacity of around 600,000 tons on ‘Build-Own-Operate’ (BOO) basis.

The ECC had directed ministry of industries and production in its last meeting to prepare a comprehensive and even-handed policy for grain silos in view of severe shortage of storage facilities.

The ECC had directed that the policy should be acceptable to all stakeholders but more importantly the investors should be encouraged through an incentive package to import and introduce international quality machinery and technology for these ultra- modern silos.

The government has been inviting the private sector to develop storage capacity in the country for quite some time but the response was not so encouraging, an official sources said.

These sources said that government intended to develop 550,000 tons of storage capacity in Karachi for agricultural export surplus on ‘Build-Own-Operate’ (BOO) basis.

The industries ministry has already held a series of meetings with the relevant stakeholders in the recent weeks and policy is now ready for announcement and would cover in detail various aspects of the overall policy to commercialize the agriculture sector through private sector involvement.

The government has targeted to export all surplus agricultural products including wheat, rice, fruits, onions, chilies, potatoes, etc., to broaden its export base and improving the trade balance. This required quantity storage, better marketing and packaging international competitiveness and reliability of suppliers.

The sources said that investors were free to develop their own capacity while Railways and Passco will make the land available on 33-year lease further extendible or on rent of 15 per cent of the market value.