LAHORE – The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Saturday took FPCCI onboard on all its major initiatives planned for the year 2011 and discussed pros and cons of each project.
LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik and Senior Vice President Sheikh Mohammad Arshad gave a presentation to the FPCCI delegation led by its Zonal Chairman Tariq Shafi and Regional Vice President Amir Atta Bajawa. LCCI Vice President Sohail Azhar, former LCCI Presidents Mian Tajammal Hussain, Iftikhar Ali Malik, Mian Anjum Nisar, Mian Muzaffar Ali and former LCCI Vice President Shafqat Saeed Piracha also spoke on the occasion.
FPCCI’s Zonal Chairman Tariq Shafi appreciated initiatives of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and assured total cooperation for the success of projects. Tariq Shafi said that projects of LCCI are great initiatives of national importance and would rightly address economic survival and sustainability.
The LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik said that the sole objective of having another dry port is to make the trade and industry competitive by a reduction in delivery time and cost. He said that the project was well on way and it would be a fully equipped, state-of-art dry port that would ensure cost-effective and efficient logistic solutions to promote economic activities in the region.
The LCCI president said that successful models of private sector-managed dry port already exists in the shape of Faisalabad dry port and Sialkot dry port. He informed participants that Faisalabad dry port has a capacity to handle 33,000 export cargo containers. It can handle as many as 5500 import consignments per annum, having a value of over Rs 80 billion.
Similarly, the LCCI President said that the Sialkot dry port can handle up to 29000 export cargo containers worth over Rs 46 billion. Shahzad Malik stated that the proposed Sheikhupura dry port would cater to the trade and industry in Lahore, Sheikhupura and Gujranwala. On Pakistan Water Front, designed by the LCCI to cope with water shortage in the country, the LCCI president informed participants that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) was working on an elaborate programme to take all the stakeholders onboard.
He had chalked out a plan to visit all chambers of commerce in the country on the first leg, while it would also take technocrats and politicians into confidence. “It is a major consensus building exercise concerning the usage and storage of water in the country.” Giving a briefing regarding a rehabilitation project for flood victims, the LCCI Senior Vice President Sheikh Mohammad Arshad informed the FPCCI delegation that LCCI had initiated construction work of 150 houses in flood affected areas.
He said that an over Rs 20 million project in district Layyah would be completed in a record time of three months. He said that work in Basti Manchar Mohana in Layyah is in progress, while a model village in Shahbazabad would be constructed as soon as the government of Punjab completes the town planning procedures for the proposed Model Village. He said that by laying the foundation stone of this mega project, LCCI had become the first chamber of commerce in the country to initiate construction in flood affected areas.
At the first stage, 40 houses would be constructed in Basti Manchar Mohana where devastation due to floods is about 90 per cent. Three committees, comprising LCCI office-bearers and Executive Committee Members, had already been formed to supervise the project and coordinate with the district administration so that it could be completed in given time.
