*Pakistan and Malaysian strategic partnership
*CPEC enters in 2ND phase with SEZ
On the conclusion of Prime Minister Khan’s two-day official visit to Malaysia on Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad reaffirmed their shared wish to sustain usual high-level contact and enlarge bilateral economic, trade and investment ties in diversified fields.
During their one-on-one meeting and subsequent bilateral delegation meetings, Malaysia and Pakistan firmly stressed that the question of Palestine the condition in India-held Kashmir, and the Rohingya issue should be resolved on the basis of the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions. Imran Khan briefed his counterpart on the Indian government’s unlawful and unilateral actions and the ensuing lockdown, communications blockade, media blackout and unlawful detentions in held Kashmir.
Imran Khan appreciated the attempts of Mahathir for increasing awareness about the condition and underscoring the imperative of nonviolent resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Both leaders accepted that Malaysia and Pakistan, together with Turkey, would pursue initiatives of strategic cooperation under the Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) to complement the attempts through the community of the Muslim world aimed at uplifting the socio-political and socio-economic situation of the Ummah and promoting the true values of Islam, while being mindful of the centrality of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in this regard. Both leaders said that a number of draft contracts concerning investment, tourism, agriculture, skills development, and higher education were in the process of being finalised shortly.
On the other hand, during his second visit to China in October 2019, Imran Khan had declared that CPEC phase-2 was the next big game and it would focus on industrialization, agriculture and socio-economic development with particular emphasis on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) creating career opportunities, growth and exports.
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It is said that first week of January 2020 saw him unleashing that gargantuan dream. On Friday, 3rd January, he did the ground-breaking ceremony of Pakistan’s first prioritized CPEC special economic zone, Allama Iqbal Industrial City, near Faisalabad. Imran Khan was accompanied with key members of his cabinet including Jehangir Khan Tareen, who had first introduced the idea of “Public Private Partnership” (PPP) for rapid industrialization in Punjab almost 20-year ago. Chinese Consul General, Lahore was present with his team. FIEDMC’s dynamic Chairman Mian Kashif Ashfaq briefed them all. Faisalabad Industrial & Economic Development Company (FIEDMC) is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) entity between the government of Punjab and the Faisalabad business community. Mian Kashif, Chairman FIEDMC, briefed the Imran Khan about the timeline and importance of the project that is predicted to create almost 350,000 career opportunities during the next 5-year and is in line with the Imran Khan’s vision of creating 10 million jobs by Public Private Partnership. Furthermore, FIEDMC has also set a 25 percent quota of employing local labor for the SEZ. It is predicted that the project would attract over Rs 360 billion, out of which almost $1 billion is in the form of FDI. Mian Kashif mentioned the urgent need to focus on the development of more Special Economic Zones following the same pattern as being conceived by FIEDMC. He also pointed out that such projects have the potential of improving Pakistan’s exports by $ 1 to $1.5 billion per annum in the short run alongside a wide and efficiently planned strategy specifically tailored to meet the country’s exporting shortcomings. Not forgetting his 10 billion tree tsunami promise, the Imran Khan also planted a sapling at the project site sending a message that industrialization will not come at the cost of the environment. FIEDMC has also promised that they will plant over 500,000 trees in the Allama Iqbal Industrial City in the next 5-year. It is also said that the first phase of the project will be completed by 2021, leading to a second phase (2500 acres SEZ), in Toba Tek Singh. Government objectives include increased trade, increased investment, job creation, and effective administration. Businesses are encouraged to organize in the zone by incentivized financial strategies. These strategies typically cover investing, taxation, trading, quotas, customs, and labor regulations.
Sources recorded that the creation of special economic zones through Pakistan is motivated by the multiple desires to attract FDI, employment generation, skill development, transfer of technology and indigenous wealth creation. Out of all the countries developing SEZs, China has been the most successful and has gained immense progress by SEZ ventures. According to an estimate, SEZs, all over the world, have created approximately 66 million jobs, out of which 30 million are exclusively located in China. How Pakistan can learn from Chinese experiences – given country’s burgeoning relationship with China through CPEC – remains to be seen.