Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that Sindh possesses huge resources in the shape of Thar coal for power generation to help meet electricity requirement of Pakistan in the time ahead.
In an interview with China Radio International (CRI) Urdu Service during his visit to Beijing, he said its capital Karachi was the economic and commercial hub of Pakistan, which had two ports – the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Port Qasim. The metropolis also generated almost 70 percent of the country’s revenue, he added.
The chief minister returned on Saturday after a three-day visit to China during which he also attended the annual Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) held in Beijing on December 29.
Murad Ali Shah said under the CPEC there were energy-generation projects in the Sindh province as it had huge coal resources, besides wind energy and solar power.
He said a mining project from indigenous resources was already underway as a part of the CPEC for producing energy in Thar area. The financial close of another energy project under CPEC was also expected in the year 2017, he added.
The chief minister said the CPEC would immensely benefit not only Sindh but also both the countries- Pakistan and China.
He said it would also help develop the backward desert area of Thar.
He said Thar possessed some 180 billion tonnes coal reserves and their exploitation required huge money, as well as, international technical expertise. “Now we have got all this in the shape of the CPEC,” he added.
He pointed out that an airport was almost complete in Thar and would be operational very soon. A lot of development activities would also take place in Thar in the time ahead, he added.
The chief minister said there was a lot of interest on the part of investors in the CEPC projects and Sindh had an advantage geographically and location-wise for them.
“In Sindh, we have skilled labour as well as the human resource and the government will also extend tax incentives which will make the projects profitable in a short span of time,” he added.
Murad Ali Shah said that even his cabinet members desired to learn Chinese language and a number of students from Pakistan were acquiring higher education in China. “This will help develop people to people contact and strengthen further the already strong friendly ties between Pakistan and China.”
He also hailed the representation of all the provinces of Pakistan in the JCC meeting.
