PESHAWAR, July 2: Provincial Minister for Industries, Labour and Manpower Mohsin Aziz on Tuesday said that NWFP is not likely to directly benefit from the increasing trade and business opportunities in Afghanistan due to poor industrial base in the province.

“After having lived over 20 years in Pakistan, Afghans are well-connected with the industrial and business circles of Lahore, Sialkot and Gujranwala, hence in such a situation there remains little chance for the NWFP to directly hold ground in the opening Afghan markets,” said Mohsin Aziz in reply to a question during a press conference.

He said the NWFP could not take benefit of over Rs17bn investment made here during the early 1990s due to lower competitive value of the industrial sector of this province.

He said the province is suffering downward growth since 1995, as out of the total 1,848 industrial units set up in the province some 590 units were closed down involving a total of Rs13bn out of Rs60bn investment made in the province since the creation of Pakistan.

Some seven years back, the labour-employment ratio was 8 to 9 per cent of the total population of the country, which also recorded decrease settling at 5.5 per cent.

“Out of the total one million industrial workforce employed in the whole of the country, NWFP has just 57,000 registered industrial labour force, much less than the Punjab’s 720,000,” said the minister while asking for the setting up of capital and labour intensive manufacturing units in the province.

To maintain even the present deteriorated state of the province’s industrial sector, said the minister, Rs10bn investment was needed.

He said to offset the locational disadvantage and low competitiveness hampering the NWFP industrial sector, the federal government should come up with some sort of ‘cost adjustment’ facilities for the manufacturing sector of the province.

Explaining his point the minister said that instead of giving incentives the NWFP industrial sector should be extended rebate against electricity charges, some exemptions under the customs duty and income tax.

He said that his proposal to the federal government to award 50 per cent of the textile products’ growth quota to the NWFP went unheeded.

“The US and Europe extend growth or excess quota to the countries who facilitate them in any of their campaigns, hence being the frontline province of the frontline state the NWFP should be awarded 50 per cent of the growth quota extended to Pakistan in recognition of its contribution to the international coalition’s campaign in the wake of the Sept 11 situation,” said the minister.

He said if the NWFP was awarded 50 per cent growth quota in textile exports it would usher in industrial revolution, which, he claimed, resulted into establishment of a chain of large scale manufacturing units.

The incentive to be extended to the NWFP in this way - allocation of share in growth quota - would involve monetary benefit of not more than Rs400m to Rs500m whereas the federal government is extending incentives involving Rs3bn only to a single car manufacturing unit.

Not only that the move would have improved the industrial base in the NWFP, all the more it would have increased self-employment and created economic activities on large scale.

He said the provincial government would shortly come up with a new policy for the public sector vocational institutions to bring the expensive machinery installed there under utility by transforming these centres into some sort of business entities.

“The products manufactured at these vocational centres would be allowed to be sold out hence these centres would be allowed to interact with private sector to make themselves sustainable,” said the minister while elaborating the salient features of the under-preparation policy.