Dubai port operator planning an industrial park in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Dubai-based global logistics and port terminal operator DP World working at Karachi port, is planning to set up an industrial park in Pakistan to attract global investors.

Sheikh Sultan bin Sulayem, chairman of the port terminal operator, said he was interested in setting up industrial parks in Pakistan, where there was no dearth of human resource.

Sheikh Sultan arrived in Pakistan on Friday to assess the scale of a climate disaster that hit the South Asian country after the onset of monsoon rains in mid-June. The subsequent floods have killed more than 1,600 people, affected 33 million and inundated a third of Pakistan, including 4 million acres of standing crops.

The chief of DP World, which already operates a container terminal at the Karachi port, said Pakistan had a huge investment potential and availability of human resource.

“The vision I have is to open industrial parks in Pakistan which will be equipped with modern infrastructure,” he said.

“Human resource is no problem in Pakistan as the country has many highly educated engineers, who will work in these industrial parks,” Arab News reported.

Sheikh Sultan said many companies in the Far East were looking to move out due to increasing cost of production for which Pakistan was an ‘ideal place’ as the Pakistani economy had “very strong fundamentals.”

The DP World chairman said he planned to pour in multi-million dollar in aid to assist Pakistan in the wake of devastating floods.

“Pakistan is facing unbelievable disaster and the media is unable to show the scale of the disaster, so I have personally come to see with my own eyes. We want to show it to the world,” he said.

“The news about natural disaster is a wake-up call for everybody and we are committed to reduce the carbon footprint in our area.”

Sheikh Sultan said his organization would provide food, medicines, tents and anything that was required for the flood-affected people in Pakistan.

“The UAE government and people are committed to help Pakistani people,” he said, promising, “The issue of climate change will be raised at every forum.”

Pakistan and the UAE have close fraternal relations and bilateral cooperation in a range of fields. The UAE is also Pakistan’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and home to more than 1.6 million Pakistani nationals.

On August 28, the UAE’s Ministry of Defense started operating an air bridge to transport humanitarian aid to Pakistan and has since sent more than 40 relief flights.