SEZ in federal capital delays due to non-availability of required land: BOI

ISLAMABAD: The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the federal capital is delayed owing to non availability of required 50 acres of land in the city.

The National Industrial Parks (NIP)- a development and a management company, is all set to develop the planned SEZ in Islamabad but the project's progress is stagnant due to non-availability of the required land, a senior official of Board of Investment (BOI) told APP here on Tuesday.

He said earlier there was also a proposal to initiate the Information Technology (IT) zone to achieve the same objective for industrial growth in Islamabad but the suggestion was rejected by the authorities.

The official said it was a priority of the government to build a SEZ in the federal capital along with three other SEZs including Hattar (Haripur), Faisalabad and Rashakai (Nowshera) for facilitating international and local investors in the country.

“We require around 50 acres of land to develop SEZ in the federal capital for providing equal opportunity and facility to foreign and local investors, “he said.

Replying to a question, he said BOI was committed for improving the ranking of the country for ease of doing business by providing conducive business environment to the foreign and local investors.

He said the government wants to achieve the ease of doing business ranking from 136 to under 100 in coming years for enhancing the foreign investment. In this regards, the documents would be submitted to World Bank (WB) after review by the government in coming months.

Replying to another question, he said BOI was working on 100 days' reform agenda with a deadline of end of March of this year for executing the 30 reforms to attract maximum foreign investment in the country.

The official said around 75 percent of work on 100 days' reforms agenda had been completed.