ISLAMABAD: The Planning Commission organized a consultative session atIslamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry to get the input and proposalsof business community for the new Mineral Policy in order to develop themineral sector on modern lines.
Dr. Syed Akhtar Hussain Shah, Member (Private Sector Development &Competitiveness), Planning Commission, Riaz Sahito Deputy Chief Ministry ofPlanning, Javed Iqbal Khattak General Manager SMEDA KPK and others werepresent.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Syed Akhtar Hussain Shah said that thegovernment wanted to develop mineral sector on modern lines as it has greatpotential to create new jobs and enhance exports.
He said the new mineral policy would envisage many interventions includingestimation and mapping of mineral reserves with scientific methods,provincial mineral policies, rules, one window facility, fixation ofroyalties and duties.
It would also introduce Mine Magistrates in mineral rich areas for speedydisposal of disputes, development of mines access roads, provision of basicfacilities like electricity, water, establishment of Common FacilitationCenters, establishment of export processing zones, specific bankingproducts for import of machinery and training facilities.
He said the government wanted to develop new Mineral Policy in consultationwith all stakeholders to develop and consultative session at ICCI was apart of that process.
He said after thorough study of primary and secondary data andconsultations with key stakeholders, a draft framework of mineral policywas developed and business community should provide input to further refineit.
Javed Iqbal Khattak General Manager SMEDA KPK gave a detailed presentationon the draft framework of new mineral policy.
He said there were 92 known minerals in Pakistan including chromite,copper, gold, iron ore, lead-zinc, coal, gypsum, gemstones, marble &granite, out of which 52 were commercially being exploited.
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However, the annual production of minerals was just 2-3 percent of totalreserves, which showed huge untapped potential of mineral sector.
He said 5000 mines were in operation and 50,000 SMEs were engaged inmineral sector providing 0.3 million jobs. He said government was planningto develop clusters of minerals to facilitate growth and exports of mineralproducts.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President ICCI said that government should developfeasibility studies of all minerals and share them with major chambers ofcommerce to enable the private sector to exploit untapped mineral sources.
He said public-private partnership models should be encouraged to extractminerals. He said government should provide easy credit facility to SMEs ofmineral sector for import of machinery and promoting mechanized mining.
He said government should set up mining universities on the pattern ofagriculture universities that would facilitate the growth and developmentof mineral sector.
Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President ICCI, Khalid Mian, Tauseef Zaman, AbbasHashmi and others highlighted various issues and challenges of mineralsector that need urgent attention of the government and gave proposals formineral policy.
