While exploring business potential and investment opportunities, Turkish companies showed interest the in Allama Iqbal Industrial City, a prioritized Special Economic Zone of Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) under CPEC relations.
A Turkish delegation visited the FIEDMC camp office, on 18th February, where both the parties discussed issues for improvement in various sectors and projects, said a press release. FIEDMC Chairman, Mian Kashif Ashfaq, briefed the delegation and apprised them of the investment opportunities and incentive packages being offered to the investors.
He emphasized on this occasion that the cordial relations between Turkey and Pakistan should now be transformed into strong trade and economic ties and believed that both countries have immense potential to complement each other in terms of bilateral trade. “But for this to happen, better connectivity between the private sectors of both countries is needed,” he added.
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Mian Kashif also announced that the development work on Special Economic Zones, including Allama Iqbal Industrial City of FIEDMC, is speedily being done while government was providing attractive incentives to investors for investing in SEZs. He said that it was right time for Turkish investors to explore joint ventures and investment in SEZs in gems and jewelry, pharmaceutical, marble, auto and health sectors.
Mian Kashif Ashfaq said that FIEDMC – following the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan – was extending maximum facilities to the foreign and local manufacturers and providing all services to businessmen under one roof for ease of doing business in the province. He said that all the industries within the export processing zone would be exempted from tax for a period of 10 years and plants, machinery, raw material and other equipment would be imported duty-free.
According to FIEDMC Chairman, around Rs 400 billion foreign and local investments would be injected into various projects, which clearly indicate that investors had reposed complete confidence in the present regime. “Like many other countries, more than 25 Chinese companies had made agreements for investments in the industrial city,” he added.
Relations between Turkey and Pakistan should now be transformed into strong trade and economic ties and believed that both countries have immense potential to complement each other in terms of bilateral trade
The Turkish delegation members said that they considered Pakistan as their second destination and wanted to establish business partnerships in automobile, IT, home appliances, education and other fields. They also said that Pakistan and Turkey have great potential to enhance cooperation in many areas and stressed that both countries should establish strong linkages between their private sectors to explore all potential areas of mutual cooperation.
Their purpose of visiting Pakistan was to study its market and find out local partners. They said that Turkey could cooperate with Pakistan in many fields and hoped that their current visit would be helpful in further improving bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries.
Later, the delegation visited different parts of industrial city and expressed their satisfaction over the pace of development of various ongoing projects.
FIEDMC and Allama Iqbal Industrial City
Faisalabad Industrial & Economic Development Company (FIEDMC) is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) entity between the Punjab government and the Faisalabad business community. It was set up in 2004 as a public listed company, established by the Government of Punjab, during Jahangir Khan Tareen’s tenure as ‘Adviser to CM Punjab on Special Initiatives”.
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Since FIEDMC’s inception, it has successfully constructed three industrial estates along Faisalabad motorway, namely: M-3 Industrial City, Value Addition City and the latest, Allama Iqbal Industrial City (AIIC).
Expanding over an area of 3200 acres, Allama Iqbal Industrial City (AIIC) saw its groundbreaking at the hands of Prime Minister Imran Khan, on Friday 3rd January 2020. It is the first prioritized CPEC special economic zone, strategically located just opposite M-3 Industrial City SEZ and interconnected through flyover at Sahianwala Interchange, Motorway M-4, Faisalabad.
According to FIEDMC, AIIC has been designed on international standards to fulfill the needs of international especially Chinese industrialists. The overarching purpose of these industrial estates is “industrial relocation” from China to key centers in Pakistan – however, FIEDMC also envisions an industrial relocation from congested inner cities to these new SEZs.
As of now, a total of nine Special Economic Zones are under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Industrial Cooperation Framework. Out of these, three have been declared as Prioritized Special Economic Zones by the governments of Pakistan and China, including the Allama Iqbal Industrial City of Faisalabad, Rashakai SEZ in KP, and Dhabajee SEZ, near Karachi, Sindh.