Karachi, Sindh Board of Investment (SBI) is now an attached department of provincial finance department however all the projects of board will continue uninterrupted, Naveed Kamran Baloch, Secretary Finance, Government of Sindh said on Thursday.
Clarifying the ambiguities about the alleged disbandment of SBI, he explained that Sindh Board of Investment and Sindh Enterprises Development Fund as constituted by the Government of Sindh shall keep on working under their defined mandates.
Sindh Board of Investment was upgraded and given the status of Investment Department in April 2010, which has now been de-notified. However, the SBI, which was constituted in March 2009, stands functional and all the projects/initiatives undertaken by the SBI shall be implemented in letter and spirit, he said according to an official handout.
Under the guidance of Chairman SBI, Muhammad Zubair Motiwala and outgoing Secretary Investment Ms. Naheed S Durrani, SBI has taken many initiatives to trigger socio-economic uplift of the province at grassroots level. Earlier SBI was also declared as focal agency to facilitate all Wind Energy projects, alongside other alternative energy projects, in the Wind Corridor of Sindh pursuant to which one-window facilitation was being provided to all local as well as international investors in this regard. Beside this, other major projects initiated by the SBI are Entrepreneurship Development Program for developing entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge, and skills in the educated youth of the province; establishment of Drip Irrigation Plant in collaboration with Agriculture Department; establishment of Sukkur Dry Port, and establishment of Marble City, Larkana Special Economic Zone, and Khairpur Special Economic Zone. The Education City Project, which has now attained maturity stage, is also being executed by the SBI under the directives of Chief Minister of Sindh.
Sindh Enterprise Development Fund, a not-for-profit company, is another window created by SBI for subsidizing credit finance for agribusinesses in Sindh by incurring the liability of the KIBOR on bank loans secured by applicant entrepreneurs on the latter’s behalf. Murad Ali Shah, Minister for Finance, Government of Sindh also fully supported all the projects already undertaken by the SBI in his preliminary briefing about the progress of the Sindh Board of Investment.
