(16th October, 2017)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said Shikarpur has the potential to become a hub of agro-based industries.
It can become an important city as different industries are established there under the economic corridor, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Shikarpur was once one of the most developed trading centres and was dubbed as Paris of Sindh where international banks had branches but decades of neglect has ruined it.
However, the attention of the government can help the city to reclaim lost glory and become a developed city.
Presently the city has twelve textile units, twenty-eight rice mills, fourteen units producing beverages, twelve achaar producers and one edible oil factory.
There are hundreds of shops of pickles while many women make and sell it from their homes. The achaar is liked across Pakistan and in some foreign countries and its exports can be further increased significantly if government support is available.
The pickle manufacturers are facing problems like standardisation, certification, training, inadequate finances etc. which has helped India beat Pakistan in the international market.
The city also lacks an industrial estate which should be established with the consultation of the Shikarpur chamber of commerce and industries while infrastructure should also be improved, he observed.
