Sialkot Business Council launched

LAHORE: The Sialkot Business Council (SBC) has been launched as a business policy advocacy and execution platform by the 13 largest private-sector institutions, industrial and export-oriented associations, a statement said on Thursday.

This will pave the way for the quick and speedy establishment of Allama Iqbal Business Park in Sialkot announced by the prime minister in his recent visit to the city, besides doubling exports in the short-term, it added.

The SBC will be a professionally-run organisation headed and assisted by a full-time convener and secretary, who will work closely with the relevant provincial and federal governments’ departments, ministries, regulators and other organisations and professional bodies to explore the new venture of industrialisation in Sialkot.

The SBC member bodies included Sialkot Chamber, Sialkot International Airport, Sialkot Dry Port Trust, AirSial Company, Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA), Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporter Association (PHMA), Surgical Manufacturers Association, Gloves Manufacturers Association, Sports Goods Manufacturers Association, Leather Garments Manufacturers Association, Sialkot Tannery Zone, Cutlery Manufacturers Association and Pakistan Steel Import and Traders Association. PRGMEA Central chairman Sohail A. Sheikh and Chief Coordinator Ijaz Khokhar welcomed the formation of Sialkot Business Council on the recommendation of Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar and provincial minister Ch Muhammad Akhlaq who held a first meeting, taking all the chairpersons of the 13 bodies onboard, it said.