Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company (KP-EZDMC) has put in serious efforts to put the industrial sector of the province on track and has successfully been able to do so as 500 new industrial units have been established with an investment of Rs.450 billion during the period of last four years.
According to the CEO KP-EZDMC Javed Iqbal Khattak, these newly established factories have played a major role in creating job opportunities for thousands of people while 350 more industrial units are under construction in various economic zones. He also said that CEO KP transmission and Grid Company KPT&GC Muhammad Ayub has discussed to form a plan to promote further local and foreign investments by providing cheap hydel power to the zones.
Javed Khattak said that the Pakistan Hunting and Sporting Arms Development (PHSADC) was a subsidiary of the federal government, which had been inactive for many years, so the big decision to merge this company with KP EZDMC was taken at the level of the federal and provincial government level. He said that the company was handed over to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the federal government after its approval by the cabinet, saying if any of his relative was employed by the Hunting and Sporting Arms Company, then he as the CEO of KP-EZDMC had no authority to merge a federal government entity into his company.
While talking about the Hunting and Sporting Arms Company of the province, he said that PHSADC is merely amounting to Rs.40 million as compare to its assets of worth 90 million rupees and the merger of the both companies has been able to save hundreds of small hunting and sports arms manufacturing factories and their workers from rendering unemployed.
He informed that his tenure as a CEO has been extended to another three years keeping in view the excellence in the performance of the industry during his time. The contract was formulated after a test and an interview and has been extended by proper means. This decision was taken after considering the success of 9 industrial zones in his tenure generating a total of 10 billion rupees, out of which 7 billion has been allotted to be used for further investment and the rest 3 million is state profit.
