LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Industry and Commerce Mian Aslam Iqbal said on Tuesday that the SME sector played a key role in boosting the economy and providing employment.
The Punjab government chalked out small industries policy, 2019, he said and added that the implementation of this policy in small industrial estates accelerated the process of colonization.
Talking to a delegation of industrialists in his office, the Provincial Minister said that 260 factories had started production in the last three years in the small industrial estates built under the self-finance model and thousands of jobs had been created. As many as 1, 069 factories were under construction in these industrial estates. He said that by the year 2023, 1713 factories would start production which would bring an investment of Rs. 53122 million and create 50, 000 jobs. In the 13 years before the present government came to power, only 237 factories were set up, he added.
Mian Aslam Iqbal said that the small industrial estates under the self-finance model included Taxila, Gujranwala 3, Sialkot 2 & 3, Lahore 2 Sundar, Kasur, Mian Channu and Khanewal. All possible facilities were being provided to the industrialists, he mentioned.