Inexpensive electricity for industries

Talking to Japan’s Ambassador H.E Kuninori Matsuda, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan disclosed that Khyber Pukhtunkhwa government has embarked upon a comprehensive strategy of speedy industrialisation of the province to promote trade and commerce. To realise this objective, hydropower projects are being implemented to provide electricity to industries at affordable price. It merits mention here that in the industrial policy of May, 2016 the provincial government had announced 25 percent rebate in electricity bills after their payment to PRSCO. But the incentive did not work and the industrial policy could not take off within the past three years as location disadvantage of the province of being far away from seaports and lack of necessary fiscal and monetary incentives also prove major impediments.

. The provincial government has not been able so far to provide electricity at competitive price from Pehurhydel power station to Gadoon Industrial Estate, notwithstanding repeated announcements in this regard. The province does not have its own transmission and distribution system and the provincial government had to sign an agreement with power division to sell 70 plus megawatt electricity to NDTC. How it can be able to provide inexpensive electricity for industrial development when the installation of distribution and transmission system for province’s owned power projects is still out of the priority list of development projects. Moreover, the previous PTI provincial government did not take the sincere offer of former Chairman WAPDA Engineer Fazal Shah in 2014 for working out and putting in place a provincial energy policy.

Skill development human of resource is another essential ingredient of fast-track industrialisation. No comprehensive and sustained skill development programme of human resource development at extensive and intensive scales has been launched to enable the locally available manpower in the application of latest technologies. The previous PTI government in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa had closed the vocational training institutes. The Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) has not been successful in performing its mandated job. The research and training facilities in public sector Engineering Universities are not state-of-the-art. Public relation exercise for highlighting hollow promises is no substitute for concrete actions.

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