KARACHI: Sindh government has approved two mega industrial and business projects for Karachi one is establishment of an state of the art technology park in NED University campus and the other is Karachi Marble City.

The decision was taken in a meeting of public private partnership policy board presided by the Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah held on July 21st 2019. It was decided that both the projects will run under the public private partnership (PPP) mode. The investment Department Government of Sindh has been directed to complete both the projects at the earliest.

Under the Special Economic Zones Act 2012, both the projects will have the status of special economic zone, thus investors of both of these projects can avail the facility of ten years of exemption from income tax and custom duty on the import of machinery.

Fast emerging IT industry of Pakistan had earned one billion dollar foreign exchange last year. Keeping in view this fact, the Sindh government in collaboration with NED University is planning to build a 20 storey state of the art building as technology zone, where professionals and experts of information technology will set up their businesses, which will produce employment opportunities for the talented people. The building of technology zone is proposed to complete in 2021 with an estimated cost of Rs 12 billion.

The IT companies in this technology park will hire offices on 30 percent less rent with full logistics support. The other project approved to run under the public private partnership mode is Karachi Marble City consisting on 300 acres of land near Northern by Pass.

It was decided to encourage investors working in marble industry. so that by using modern methods, they can produce value added marble, granite and other stones.

It was also decided in the meeting that 200 acres more land adjacent to Karachi Marble City is to be reserved for industries related to construction sector and a feasibility study for this sector will be conducted prior to its development.