FAISALABAD, June 25: Punjab industries secretary Fayyaz Bashir has claimed that an industrial estate over 3,000 acres is being developed along motorway to speed up industrial development of the region.

He was speaking at a function hosted by the All-Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association (APCEA) here on Friday.

He said the project was visualized by the chief minister for development of industry so that the country could face the WTO challenge.

Mr Bashir said the chief minister had provided Rs1.5 billion at a nominal markup of 0.25 per cent to materialize this project.

He had also constituted a 21-man company 16 members of which, including chairman, vice-chairman and chief executive officer, would be from the private sector. They would use their skills to run and make this mega project a success.

He said four provincial secretaries and Faisalabad DCO have also been given representation in the company to help remove any possible administrative bottlenecks.

Mr Bashir requested the local industrialists to visit industrial estates abroad and give suggestions to make it the best facility in this region.

Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company chairman Mian Latif said the site for the estate has been identified - Millat Road interchange up to Sahianwala interchange.

He said the size and price of plots would be fixed through mutual consultation of the company members.

APCEA chairman Ahmad Kamal said WTO regime was only six months away and Pakistani industry and exporters would be confronted with fierce competition in the global market.

He urged exporters to prepare themselves to face the challenge by lowering input cost and improving the quality of products.

"Instable raw material prices and ever increasing cost of electricity, gas, petroleum products and freight charges have become a permanent threat to our exports," he said.

"In addition to these manufacturing hassles, we are also facing the social compliance and labour laws irritants. Existing labour laws are very complicated and burdensome for the industry. Strict adherence to these laws and regulations would result in the collapse of industry. We are not against labour welfare but what we are pointing out is unnecessary, impractical and unreasonable regulations and framework," he said.