‘Sialkot facing shortage of industrial estates’

SIALKOT: Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president Khawaja Masood Akhtar said on Sunday the city was facing acute shortage of industrial estates and zones due to rapid growth of entrepreneurs.

Talking to media, he said that they had already proposed for setting up of new small industrial estates on all major arteries leading to Sialkot city as well as special economic zone to resolve the problems of industrialists.

The SCCI president stated that setting up of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) along with the Sialkot-Lahore Motorway would open a new vista of development and prosperity and accelerate the export activates. He said that they had suggested the government to develop proposed SEZ on Sialkot-Lahore Motorway near Wazirabad to encourage the industrial sector.

skill development project: The Technology Upgradation and Skills Development Company (TUSDEC), Ministry of Industries and Production, has launched the Tharparkar skills development project.Talking here on Sunday, TUSDEC CEO Muhammad Alamgir Ch said that the programme was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He said that the objective of the project was to impart skills to unemployed youth while ensuring close coordination with industry/potential employers. A total of 300 youth, including both male and female, was targeted to be trained mainly in the trades of construction, retail, automobile and logistics, he disclosed.

He said that the scope of the project was to train 1,000 participants, 700 from Karachi and 300 from Tharparkar. The TUSDEC CEO said that based on the pilot initiative, the TUSDEC might consider proposing establishment of skills development centre to help local youth to get employable skills. The TUSDEC team would meet all stakeholders to design a need based training course, which could address the issue of skilled labour, he said.