The Punjab Industrial Estates Development & Management Company (PIEDMC) Chairman SM Tanveer has welcomed the inclusion of five industrial estates of PIEDMC in Special Economic Zone under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor programme (CPEC). "It would boost the industrialisation process in the Punjab province, particularly in the Southern parts," Tanveer said, adding: "Credit goes to the Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif for winning the status of special economic zone for five PIEDMC industrial estates under the CPEC.

It would lead to creation of more than 150,000 jobs and billions of rupees investment in respective industrial estates." He said, "The province of Punjab would fast transform into a prosperous province with this single step," he added. The federal government has upgraded the status of five industrial estates of PIEDMC to special economic zone, which included Multan Industrial Estate phase-II, 450-acre Rahim Yar Industrial Estate, 400-acre Bhalwal Industrial Estate and Mianwali, Rawalpindi and Dera Ghazi Khan industrial estates under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) programme, he said. The machinery imported and the income generated in these special economic zones would be duty and tax exempted for next 10 years, he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2016