LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan today (Friday) laid the foundation-stone of the country’s first-ever Central Business District (CBD) in Lahore, a commercial hub aimed at ensuring ease-of-doing-business.
“With huge tenders involved, this project will witness a major take-off in short span and also transform Lahore into a modern city,” the premier said while addressing the foundation-laying ceremony.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the project would touch the trading volume of Rs 6,000 billion with its first phase of Commercial and Business Hub to generate activities worth Rs 1,300 billion.
“Central Business District will serve as a business hub that will help in wealth generation,” he added. PM Imran stressed that wealth generation projects are important to strengthen the economy enabling it to return the loans.
The premier regretted that earlier, lack of planning resulted in haphazard expansion of big cities like Lahore and Karachi. “Central Business District would ensure environment-friendly policies with its unique features of botanical gardens and green spaces,” he added,
PM Imran Khan announced that as per estimates, Pakistan can generate Rs6,000bn in revenue from these commercial projects. The prime minister seemed a bit annoyed when no one clapped at the announcement.
“I think all of you sitting in the front have had a late night, because you seem to be asleep. No one clapped at the announcement that Rs6,000 billion will be generated,” he added.
Referring to the new agreement with Qatar, PM Imran announced that Pakistan had signed a deal related to the supply of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which would help save the nation $300 million annually.
The prime minister informed that his government had been trying to negotiate this deal for the past one year. “When a difficult time comes upon the nation, a country has to think of ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions,” he added.
