The 11 kilometres long Lahore- Islamabad Motorway is getting a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) under the name of M-3 Allama Iqbal Industrial City under the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
According to the recently appointed Chairman Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) by the Prime Minister Imran Khan, Mian Kashif discussed the future prospects of development work in the area. He said that Punjab was vital geographically as it connects all main arteries to CPEC routes connect through Punjab. In regards to M-3 AII, a 250 acre Value Addition City (VAC) is also connected with the motorway. Chinese investors have already made an investment worth $900 million.
The M-3 AII City will be the largest of all SEZs with a total area of 3300 acre. It is connected with two motorway links: Lahore-Islamabad and Karachi-Sukkur-Multan-Jarwanwala links. Groundwork on SEZ is expected to start in August on a public-private partnership and joint ventures of company to company agreements.
M-3 AII City will be home to 400 industries will the capacity to generate over 0.3 million direct jobs. A 25 percent employment quota will be allocated for locals of the area. In regards to this, raining and vocational institutions will be setup with the support of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Fouji Foundation, TEVTA, PVTC, and other institutions of international standards.
An amount of Rs1.4 billion have initially been allocated under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) of the budget for fiscal year 2019-20 for the provision of utilities including transmission lines and ancillary arrangements. The cost of gas and electricity provision to all the SEZs of FIEDMC will be bored by the federal government.
Sales for the M-3 AII City have already started. It is expected to improve trade balance, generate employment, and pull investment with effective administration.
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