Senate panel for speedily finalizing requirements of CPEC Authority

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Special Committee on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Wednesday directed the ministry of planning to finalize all the requirements necessary for establishment of CPEC Authority at the earliest.

The Chairperson of the committee, Senator Sherry Rehman said CPEC was a national project and all political parties were unanimously in favor of this project, however she said rules and regulations of the Authority must be acceptable to all the political parties.

She said the bill should also be passed through the act of Parliament instead of through an Ordinance.

The CPEC Authority Bill, she said, would not be cleared by the Upper House until all provinces are given due representation.

Senator Kauda Babar said establishment of CPEC Authority was need of the time and keeping in view the importance of the project, the government should not waste any further time and table the draft bill in the parliament for approval as soon as possible.

Secretary Planning Zafar Hassan informed the committee that draft bill of the Authority had been prepared and would be presented for approval soon.

Meanwhile briefing on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under CPEC, Chairman Board of Investment (BOI) Zubair Gilani said the exports of the country were not showing significant improvement due to the fact that there were basic flaws in SEZs Act, 2012."These flaws are being removed and it is hoped that the amendments in the law would be finalized by end of current fiscal year," he added.

He said without removing the basic flaws in the law, industrialization can not be promoted in the country.

Gilani informed that during last three months a remarkable progress was made in the three SEZs including Rashakai, Allama Iqbal and Dhabeji SEZs.

Senator Azam Swati pointed out that earlier, there was no progress in the SEZs in the country due to the fact that the investors were more interested in transactions of plots of the zones rather than establishing their industries.

However he said the PTI government was working on removing all such bottlenecks and flaws to truly promote industrialization and export in the country.

Giving presentation on the electricity requirement for the SEZs, Secretary BOI said by December this year, 10 MW of electricity would be available for Rashakai Economic Zone and Allama Iqbal economic zone in Faisalabad.

Further he said in Dhabeji economic zone, 32 MW of electricity is planned to be provided by 2022.Senator Usman Kakar alleged the government was not serious in development of SEZs in Balochistan province.

Chairman BOI informed that the government was fully focused on the development projects of Balochistan including two SEZs-Hub and Bostan.

He informed that Hub was like a jewel in the crown because of its location near the port.