Initiatives by the Sindh ministry to uplift overseas Pakistanis and opportunities for women are in progress, Minister for Industries and Commerce of the Sindh province Rauf Siddiqui told the Saudi Gazette. Sindh is the third largest province of Pakistan, with Karachi as its capital city. ‘'A hundred acre land has been earmarked at the Northern Bypass near Super highway, of which seventy acres are allocated for entrepreneurs and overseas Pakistanis'', Siddiqui said. ‘'An exclusive thirty acres are allocated for women entrepreneurs to set up small, medium or cottage industries independently. Infrastructures coupled with other utilities are ready for operation,'' he said. Siddiqui pointed that Pakistan's political environment has always interfered with the smooth flow of economic trends, and that amidst the number of issues tackled by the coalition government to streamline the smooth working of business, trade and industry, it is still in the prolonged stage in Sindh province. ‘'We are taking drastic measures to revamp the ongoing industrial process and to tackle the rising cost of business activities, development of infrastructure, logistics etc, so that genuine businessmen and overseas investors take advantage of the available raw material and cheap labor to boost economic activities,” the minister said. Commenting on the global economy trends vis-à-vis Pakistan's economy, Siddiqui said the global economy in the past one-and-a-half years has taken an unprecedented turn for the worse. “All major players in the developed countries are fighting tooth and nail to get acquainted with the accelerated oil prices, which is directly proportional to food inflation, and is causing overall impact on related services like health care, transport, education, and utilities,” he said. “Over the years, global wars and regional disputes have shattered and shaken up both macro and micro-economies of the world, creating a mental divide between the so-called haves and have-nots. This logic has compulsorily driven around one third of the world population to live below the poverty line.” Rauf Siddiqui called upon the G-8 countries to tackle such grave issues and to formulate strategies to combat the poverty menace peacefully. “ It is estimated that most of the world wealth is accumulated in the G-8 countries, because of which international investment is targeted at these countries only. The down trodden and under developed countries are left poverty stricken, and under hegemony of these powerful nations,” he added. Siddiqui said the Sindh government has taken several steps in the provincial budget of 2008-2009 released in July, for encouraging industrial growth in the province. “An amount of Rs1129.394 million is allocated to the Annual Development Program (ADP) which was assigned Rs722.20 million last year. Of this Rs267.878 million has been given to ‘Sindh Small Industrial Corporation', a project for massive industrialization of the province,” he said. “In addition to ten ongoing schemes initiated by the department, five new schemes have been planned for execution in new cities of the province. Under public/private partnership, development management companies have been formed to plan development work for residents in Karachi's business districts of Korangi, Landhi, Federal B Area and North Karachi,” he said. Siddiqui said that Pakistan's foreign policy interlinked with its internal political policy would help to accelerate the pace of work. ‘'There is a need of carving a foreign policy which has major influence of the political situation prevailing in the country, vis-à-vis the border situation with our neighbors including India, Iran, Afghanistan and China,'' he said, adding that domestic and international trade and commerce are largely affected on any major upheaval that occasionally takes place in the country as in bomb explosions, political unrests, disrupted law and order situation, directly influenced by the war on terrorism confronting Pakistan. He said the scope of agro-based industries is set to increase in the rural areas of Sindh, as a program for massive installation of agro-based value addition industries has been initiated for the first time under his ministry. “This is of utmost importance, so as to raise the standard of living of people living in remote areas.'' Siddiqui said that once the industries are set up, they will open new avenues for business ventures like transport, logistics, power generation, cold storages, low cost housing, school and colleges, hospitals and so on. ‘'All these steps if properly implemented with correct utilization of funds will usher a genuine phase of industrialization which will not only have urban centric benefits, but shall provide equal opportunities to rural areas, bringing in synergy and accelerated economic growth in the Sindh province,'' the minister said. __
