SIALKOT, Nov 30: The Punjab government will construct small dams on all rivers and canals in the province to produce electricity.

Efforts were also under way to get rid of the foreign companies providing electricity at exorbitant rates, Punjab Minister for Power Chaudhry Armughan Subhani said on Sunday.

Talking to newsmen at the Civil Rest House here, the minister said in the past, hasty decisions were made to grant rights of power production to foreign companies.

He said that small dams would help provide relief to the farmers and industrialists in the Punjab, besides enabling exporters to compete in the international markets.

Earlier, the minister told various trade delegations that the government had given Rs1 billion loans to the interested people for setting up new industrial projects or to upgrade the existing industrial units in the province.

He said that the setting up of more industries would scale down the unemployment graph. Efforts were under way to motivate the industrialists to start production of 200 non-traditional items which could earn more foreign exchange through export.

The minister urged the businessmen to establish their industrial units at the Sialkot Export Processing Zone (EPZ) at the earliest.

The government was considering a proposal to set up a power station at the Sialkot Export Processing Zone (EPZ) near Sambrial in collaboration with the private sector.