Economic Coordination Committee has directed Petroleum and Power Divisions to devise a road map, within 30 days, for provision of electricity and gas to all industrial estates. The ECC, which met in Islamabad on Monday with Finance Minister Asad Umar in the chair, also approved provision of 833 million rupees to Pakistan Machine Tool Factory for payment of employees’ salaries and retirement benefits. Chairman Board of Investment (BoI) gave a detailed presentation to the ECC on development of Special Economic Zones in the country and related issues. The meeting decided that BOI will reduce the timeframe for approval of SEZ applications from 90 to 45 days. Further, it will propose certain changes in SEZ Act to make it more investor friendly.
It was also decided that SEZs of Islamabad and Bostan will be included in the list of priority SEZs under CPEC. ECC also asked BoI to revisit the requirements for setting up of tourism, IT and health related entities within SEZs.
Published in Daily Times, February 5th 2019.
