KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has said that creating of employment and economic opportunities is central to PTI government's policy in the province and has to leverage the availability of cheap and abundant energy as game changer to usher new industrial revolution. For this purpose, the provincial government has taken three major reform initiatives including establishment of KP Board of Investment & Trade (KP-BoIT), which is led by investors with two-third as private members.
The objectives of the establishment of KP-BoIT is one window operation to investors, creating enabling environment for investment, assist in developing a comprehensive public private partnership, sub-sector studies, developing concepts, brief and fact sheets, identify sector-wise potential projects and prepare pre-feasibility reports of such projects wherever possible, hold conference, seminars, liaise proactively with the banking industry and State Bank of Pakistan to improve the deposit to loan ratio in the province.
The BoIT has identified 4 projects in tourism, five in livestock & agriculture and one each in transport, energy & power and local government for immediate investment. The provincial government has also established Economic Zone Development Management Company to instead merely industrial estates develop economic zones, revitalising existing industrial estates with affordable and dependable power supply, developing suitable economic zones and connecting them with assured and affordable power supply. Spade work is being underway and chief minister has directed that the company should be in place by the end of September, 2015.
For the provision of trained and skilled manpower to industries, the provincial government has also decided the establishment of a Technical University. The PC-II of the project has been approved while Higher Education Commission (HEC) has also given permission in this regard.
The University Act has been drafted and a fund of Rs 1 billion has been allocated for the financial year 2014-15 while the University of Science & Technology (NUST) and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) is being consulted and efforts being made to use existing infrastructure for the purpose. Similarly, for skill development of youth, a private sector led Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) has been established for which rules and regulations are in progress.
The authority is headed by industrialist to make technical education more demand oriented, two-third of the members of Board of Directors are from private sector. TEVTA will manage all matters related to technical education. To improve the quality of vocational training and bring it at par with national standards, the authority has adopted the National Vocational and Qualification framework while Institutional Management Committees have also been established in 107 institutions to manage and monitor the function of technical institutions in the province.
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