Official sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that under the programme special attention would be accorded on developing clusters, including ceramic pottery (Gujrat), domestic electrical appliance (Gujranwala/ Gujrat), leather goods (Sialkot), wood working (Chiniot), ginning (Rahim yar Khan), handloom (Multan) and textile machinery (Faisalabad).
Initially, clusters like sports wear (Sialkot), marble & granite (Islamabad-Rawalpindi), PVC, plastic products and auto parts (Lahore) would be developed in these areas.
The provincial government has allocated Rs8 billion for providing loan facilities to small and medium entrepreneurs and other interested persons for setting up new industrial projects, upgrading and capacity building of existing industrial units in the province.
Out of this amount so far Rs2 billion had already been advanced to the SMEs and other interested persons, the sources added.
The government was encouraging newcomers intending to enter in industrial sector and would extend its full co-operation to them.
In order to mitigate the problems being confronted by the SMEs the government had decided to set up 'SME industrial estates' in Punjab.
They said the government had already initiated a strategy for tracking the industrial sector on modern lines as well as to ensure maximum establishment of new industries for reducing the unemployment graph in the province.
They said the government was making all out efforts to encourage the business community to start manufacturing of non-traditional products aimed at earning maximum foreign exchange through the export of non-traditional products to various countries.
The sources revealed that a large number of different non-traditional products had been identified and the business community would be motivated for starting the manufacturing of these products.
Interested persons could start manufacturing of non-traditional products without investing huge investment in different areas of the province, the sources added.