Special Economic Zones to be set up in Thatta, Chakwal to attract Chinese investment

Beijing: Dynamic Engineering and Automation (DEA) has launched two Special Zones (SEZs) at Pir Phato, Thatta and Padshahan, Chakwal districts and concluded negotiations with Chinese investors and companies to establish manufacturing facilities, global service centers, R&D labs and sales centers with estimated investment of US $5 to $7 billion.

A number of multi-billion Chinese companies have confirmed their investment plans in the two SEZs which have been launched in an effort to promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Owais Mir, CEO of DEA said on Wednesday.

“We have signed agreements with Shenyang Biotech Group, Neusoft Medical Systems, HE Vision Group, Lovol Heavy Industries, Wondfu Medical, Kaper Technologies, Green Agrotech, Shenglin Metallurgical Group, Red Crown Intelligent Technology, Shanghai Rich Tai Industries and Dandong automation to act as the local partners and facilitators,” he told media.

He said that these Chinese investors will establish industries in medical sector, metals recycling, automobile including EV, paint, marbles, agriculture and farming, renewable energy, paper recycling, artificial intelligence the SEZs.

The master layout of the SEZs will be prepared by China Urban Rural Holding Group, which specializes in rural and urban revitalization, eco-friendly designs and implementation of balanced development of regions in China.

The decision to formalize the partnership through these MoUs for establishing various projects have already been made from both sides and a key milestone for both countries in their long-term relationship was to make it public after extensive evaluation and identifying the core competencies and strong synergies between them.

These initiatives would generate employment and business activities in the henceforth neglected rural areas, he added.

The DEA in health care initiative is collaborating with HE Vision China to build a state-of-the-art eye hospital that will be fully equipped with advanced technology.

This Eye Hospital project focuses to be part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and will fall under the classification of CPEC Healthcare Sector in Pakistan under the “BRI Belt and Road” initiative. The hospital aims to provide free of cost eye treatments and checkups in the less privileged poor areas.

Owais Mir said that the DEA was already providing Energy Solutions e.g., Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) and LNG equipment services in Pakistan and is also focusing on healthcare, manufacturing and industrial parks development sector.

Mrs Fareena Mazhar, Secretary, Board of Investment who graced the signing ceremony of DEA and “He Vision” MOU informed the audience that to meet the global challenges and international competitiveness effectively, the government has created Special Economic Zones (SEZs) scheme in Pakistan, which has become basic tool to assist investment policy.

The establishment of SEZs will help to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The SEZs law will allow creation of industrial clusters with liberal incentives, infrastructure facilities, tax reliefs and investment facilitation services to enhance productivity and ease in doing business through one window operation.

In this regard, Project Director PMU-CPEC-ICDP of the Board of Investment (BOI) on Industrial Cooperation (IC) under CPEC, Asim Ayub also witnessed the MoU signing ceremony between Neusoft and DEA for establishing Sino-Pakistan Advanced Imaging Technologies, AI, Health Mgt, Academic, and Training & Education programs.

Considering the vital need of improving health infrastructure in Pakistan, the PD PMU stressed the need for the development of Smart SEZs & that BOI lays special emphasis on promoting Joint Ventures between local & foreign firms.