Punjab Minister for Industries and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal presided over a meeting at Civil Secretariat on Thursday to review investment in the cement industry and installation of new cement plants in the province.
Addressing the meeting, he said that a ban on the cement industry had been lifted after a gap of 12 years so that the sector could flourish and augment the industrial sector.
He regretted that many months were spent for acquiring a no-objection certificate (NOC) for setting up new industries and asked the line departments to come fully prepared in the next meeting. He said that a special cell had been set up in industries department to deal with installation of cement plants.
He said that focal persons of line departments would be included in the cell and obtaining of NOC would be made easy so as to facilitate investors. He directed the line departments to work in an organised manner and further directed that industries department should develop an application for submitting applications of setting up cement plants. “The departments concerned would be responsible for completing their work within the given timeline,” he added.
The minister stressed that latest technology should be utilised for setting up cement plants that use minimum water. Facilitating the investors was responsibility of the line departments and any impediment in this regard would not be tolerated, warned the minister.