The visiting Minister for Industries & Commerce in Pakistan's Sindh province, Rauf Siddiqui, has encouraged overseas Pakistanis to invest in developmental projects in Pakistan. Siddiqui was speaking at a select gathering of distinguished Pakistanis at a dinner thrown in his honor by Pakistan Investors Forum (PIF) here on Monday. The visiting minister sounded upbeat over the industrial growth in his province. Siddiqui meticulously laid out his vision before an enthusiastic audience. He said he was in fact addressing a larger audience of the overseas Pakistanis throughout the world. According to him, the time was ripe and right for the Pakistanis to act fast and bring home investments, which would pay dividends in future. He informed the gathering that new industrial zones in and around Karachi have been planned, especially in the Northern Bypass area where about 30 percent of the estate has been earmarked for women entrepreneurs. In Nooriabad Industrial Estate area, some additional lands have been allocated for new allocation and once otherwise dead estate has now 117 industrial units fully functioning day and night. In Dhabeji, in Thatta district, a new industrial estate has also been planned and the work on its master plan was in progress. Elsewhere in the interior of Sindh, a large industrial zone was also being planned which would be given a 10-year tax holiday in order to encourage potential Pakistani and foreign investors. He also informed that in this particular industrial zone, the priority was to encourage setting up of the agro-based industries. He also added that a 5,000 acre land has already been earmarked for a brand new and modern industrial estate in the city of Sukkur in the north of Sindh. Sukkur is in close proximity to two other provinces namely, Punjab and Balochistan and that such an industrial estate would encourage and motivate industrialists to invest there as the finished products could be easily marketed and transported to these two neighboring provinces. To a question as to how his vision of industrial growth would see the light of day when electricity situation was awful in the province, especially in Karachi, the minister said his priority was to set up power producing industries which would not only meet their own requirements but also sell to the needy industries in the area. He said there would be an exclusive quota in these industrial zones for the overseas Pakistanis. Earlier on Shamshad Siddqiui - the general secretary of PIF presented a brief mission statement of his organization to the minister. Others from PIF who also spoke on the occasion included Asghar Qureshi, Arif Mirza and Tariq Soomro. At the end, a memento shield was also awarded to the minister by PIF. __
