Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Commerce and Industries Minister Dr Ahmad Hussain Shah said the province needed a strong economy and sustainable industrial progress to provide people maximum employment.
Inaugurating developmental projects at industrial estates at Abbottabad, he said the KP government allocated Rs 8 billion in the current ADP to promote industry, with Rs 2 billion marked for the industrial sector in the Hazara Division. He said the KP government had created 11 new industrial zones in the province, increasing them from 4 to 15.
He said KP needed industry for employment because only 40 percent of KP land was agricultural and 16 percent fell into mountaneous terrain. He said terrorists were also attracting unemployed and qualified youth, who had to be provided job opportunities. He said Hazara Division was the most suitable region for industrial investment, because it was peaceful, scenic and and geographically suitable for industrialisation.
He said Hazara shares a border with Punjab, on one side, and China on the other. He said more industrial zones would be established in Hazara. He said the second phases of the Hattar and Ghazi industrial zones were being initiated. He said the Hattar industrial zone was the 5th largest in the country. He said the government had started a soft loan programme at a cost of $20 million to facilitate investors in KP to expand existing industrial units or begin new businesses.
Earlier, he inaugurated Rs 20 million projects to improve the Abbottabad Industrial Estate infrastructure.
