LAHORE: Optimistic about the huge advantages of Pakistan’s textile industry, Challenge Fashion (Pvt.) Ltd is planning to invest 150 million US dollars in 3-5 years.
Chinese Textile Company is planning to construct a textile park in Lahore spreading over 550 acres. The company will start its construction from January, 24 and it will be partially operational before October, 2024.
Pakistan will earn 500 million US dollars of foreign exchange. It will also create 30,000 jobs every year after it is fully completed. At the same time, it is expected to drive additional investment of US$100 million in other supporting industries.
Karen Chen, CEO of Challenge Fashion, said this while talking to Business Recorder after giving briefing to the CPEC Punjab Media Delegation, an initiative taken by Chinese Consulate Lahore and Institute of International Relations and Media Research (IIRMR).
The delegation was led by IIRMR chairman Muhammad Mehdi and Chinese Commercial Attache Yan Yang. President IIRMR Yasir Habib Khan and secretary to Chinese Council General Lahore Chen Bao were also part of the delegation.
Chairman IIRMR Muhammad Mehdi said that four day media visit is part of ongoing series of celebrations of successful completion of 10 years of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an ace undertaking of global iconic project “Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)” envisioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Karen Chen, CEO of Challenge Fashion while talking about the difficulties said that acquisition of high-quality fabrics is a big challenge. At present, more than 80 % of the surface accessories are imported, which greatly hinders the company’s pace of expanding its industrial scale.
Therefore, Huang Weiguo, chairman of the board, decided to increase investment in Lahore and purchased 550 acres of land, and obtained the qualification of a special economic zone from the Pakistani government. It is the only wholly foreign-owned special economic zone approved.
The company plans to build the park into the most innovative and sustainable textile industry base in South Asia, show China’s park design concept and construction standards to Pakistani counterparts, promote the most efficient and environmentally friendly automated fabric production equipment and garment production system, and spread Modern production management science.
She also said that the establishment of a supply chain cluster will help improve Pakistan’s labor structure and management. “We hope to demonstrate China’s industrial park standards to our Pakistani counterparts by creating a Chinese-regulated industrial park project.
We can enable Chinese enterprises interested in overseas layout to see Pakistan’s investment potential, and also provide project landing sites for SMEs so that they can fully enjoy the preferential investment policies provided by the Pakistani government.”
Karen said that “the tariff-free treatment of textiles exported to the EU, together with China’s Free Trade Agreement, can guarantee the price edge of Pakistani products. Pakistani fabrics exported to Africa or Jordan can enter North America without tariffs, and the route is much shorter than from East Asia.” Karen said that Challenge Fashion will continue its efforts to promote Pakistan’s textile exports.
Karen also said that in response to the call of the country’s One Belt One Road strategy, Shanghai Yuanyi Industrial Co., Ltd. invested in Pakistan in 2014 to establish the first overseas export-oriented garment manufacturing enterprise, which is the third outside the two production bases in Shanghai and Hubei.
Challenge has always been based on the technological innovation of fabrics as its core competitiveness. Its products have been selected into the national team uniforms for the Winter Olympics, and have been awarded the single champion of the manufacturing industry by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Deputy CEO of Pak Matiari-Lahore Transmission Company (PMLTC) Pvt. Ltd Ma Desheng while giving briefing to media said that Lahore will be loadshedding free in 2024. Lahore Conversion site of 886-km HVDC Lahore-Matiari is the first transmission line project under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to transmit electricity from power stations in Sindh to load centres in Punjab. It will also transmit electricity from the indigenous coal-based power plants under construction in Thar district of Sindh under CPEC.
