Karachi: Recently in a Seminar held by DRI Democracy Reporting International in collaboration with SDG Secretariat MNA Syma Nadeem Federal Parliamentary Secy Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination Pakistan and Convener of SDG 7 Alternate Renewable Energy spoke about Industrial Opportunities created during COVID-19 and PTI Government Response under these circumstances. She also spoke at length about the Health Emergency that crashed the entire Heavyweight Economies of the world and how the world went into a recession due to the closure of the OPEC refineries and cut down of Production putting pressures upon the prices to go lowest in history.
The Energy Sector was badly hit and the result was a massive disruption in the Supply Chains mainly due to the unavailability of Naptha and Diesel industrial fuels. Chinese market took the brunt and as it went into a lockdown mode its monopoly in the USA and Europe left a void. Pakistan took it as an opportunity along with other Countries as Bangladesh Cambodia, Vietnam, and Srilanka. Pakistan instead of going into a complete lockdown opted for smart lockdown and altered its business plans and products to suit the demands of the present times i.e. related to Medical equipment as PPEs, Sanitizer s, Masks, and Ventilators. In Surgical instruments, we already had 9.57% orders in the Fiscal year 19-20 but it went up to 100 billion dollars and 500 billion dollars at the end of the year. Our IT industry boomed. Our Food Supply Chains reverted to online delivery systems and also tapped the Halal meat markets. Then our Construction industry was given a push through Amnesty schemes and Tax exemptions and subsidies etc Long time closed down Textile industry revived and jobs were created through multiple shifts as orders started pouring in. Even State Bank gave low-cost loans to Rozgar Schemes. Under these circumstances, the Energy sector recognized the need to transition to Alternate Energy resources that promised low cost stabilized economy that reduced the reliance upon fossil fuel imports and also reduced the green house emissions to control Climate change.
PTI Government in this regard took many initiatives and approved the ARE Policy in 2019 giving a 60-65 %Energy mix. Subsequently, 12 foreign Power companies signed during Covid. One such big example is of World Bank approving a 450 billion dollars Support to KPK to transition to Renewable Energy Resources. Similar Solar generation plants were also installed in Baluchistan and other provinces. Recently The Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary also identified 3 priority industry mainly Agriculture, Electronics, and the Manufacturing of Electric vehicles in Pakistan. Our large scale Manufacturing had the largest growth that doubled from July to November from 7.4% to 14.5% as of now.
In the end, MNA Syma Nadeem suggested working upon an industrial policy and digitalize all the industries. She stressed one window operations for SECP, FBR, and NBP. She also suggested to cut down on imported raw material and encourage fast track SEZs. Her take on SMEs was to take them under the umbrella of a banking network.
