China agreed to invest in two new SEZs in Pakistan

BEIJING, March 18 : Pakistan to set up two new Special Economic Zons (SEZs) to host mega Chinese investments.

Owais Mir, CEO of DEA told China Economic Net (CEN) that negotiations with Chinese investors have been concluded, and multi-billion Chinese companies have confirmed their plans to establish manufacturing facilities, global service centers, R&D labs and sales centers in these SEZs with an estimated investment USD of 5-7 billion in the next five years.

Pakistani company Dynamic Engineering and Automation (DEA) has launched the SEZs at Pir Patho District Thatta and Padshahan, District Chakwal to promote Foreign Direct Investment, in line with the vision of Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan.

Owais Mir further said that DEA has signed agreements on Tuesday with multiple Chinese companies to act as the local partners and facilitators. Companies include Shenyang Biotech Group, Neusoft Medical Systems, HE Vision Group, Lovol heavy industries, Wondfu medical, Kaper technologies, Green agrotech, Shenglin metallurgical Group, Red Crown Intelligent Technology, Shanghai Rich Tai Industries and Dandong automation.

“These Chinese investors will establish industries in the medical sector, metal recycling, automobiles including EV, paint, marbles, agriculture and farming, renewable energy, paper recycling, and artificial intelligence.

The master layout of the SEZs will be prepared by China Urban-Rural Holding Group, which specializes rural and urban revitalization, eco-friendly designs and implementation of balanced development of regions in China,”

He said that the decision to formalize the partnership through these MoUs for establishing various projects has already been made from both sides; he added that key milestone for both countries in their long-term relationship was to make it public after extensive evaluation and identifying the core competencies and strong synergies between them.

These initiatives would generate employment and business activities in the henceforth neglected rural areas.

Owais said that DEA in the health care initiative is collaborating with HE Vision China to build a state-of-the-art eye hospital that will be fully equipped with advanced technology.

“This Eye Hospital project focuses to be part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and will fall under the classification of CPEC Healthcare Sector in Pakistan under the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative.

The hospital aims to provide free of cost eye treatments and checkups in the less privileged poor areas”, he mentioned.

Mir also stated that the DEA is already providing Energy Solutions, e.g., Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) and LNG equipment services in Pakistan and focusing on the health care, manufacturing and industrial parks development sector.

Mrs. Fareena Mazhar, Secretary, Board of Investment, had graced DEA’s signing ceremony and “He Vision.”

she said that to effectively meet the global challenges and international competitiveness, the Government of Pakistan has created SEZ scheme in Pakistan, which has become a basic tool to assist investment policy.

She further said that the establishment of SEZs will help attract FDI and the SEZs law will create industrial clusters with liberal incentives, infrastructure facilities, tax reliefs, and investment facilitation services to enhance productivity and ease in doing business through one window operation.

In this regard, Project Director PMU-CPEC-ICDP of the Board of Investment (BOI) on Industrial Cooperation (IC) under CPEC, Asim Ayub also witnessed the MoU Signing Ceremony between Neusoft and DEA for establishing Sino-Pakistan Advanced Imaging Technologies, AI, Health Management, Academic, and Training and Education programs.

Considering the vital need to improve health infrastructure in Pakistan, the PD PMU stressed the need for smart SEZ development. BOI lays special emphasis on promoting joint ventures between local and foreign firms.