ISLAMABAD: China’s largest automobile manufacturer has completed all perpetrations to establish the manufacturing of electric vehicles in Pakistan’s first private Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Lahore.
The MG JW Automobile Pakistan Pvt Ltd as a ‘zone enterprise’ in the JW-SEZ, Lahore Raiwind would manufacture electric vehicles with an estimated foreign direct investment of Rs663 million and local investment of Rs637 million.
MG Pakistan is a joint project between JW SEZ and SMIL — a subsidiary of SAIC Motor Corporation Limited. SAIC is a Chinese state-owned international automotive design and manufacturing company.
It is the largest auto manufacturer in China and the seventh-largest in the world. In 2006, SAIC purchased the prestigious British brand Morris Garages (MG) and is now marketing automobiles under the MG brand all over the world.
According to officials, “The module is designed to assist real investors, from all corners of the world, in getting admission into SEZs while ensuring complete intelligibility.
Board of Investment (BOI) had received the ‘Zone Entry Application’ of MG JW Automobile Pakistan Pvt Ltd through its recently launched ‘SEZ MIS Module’, which acts as a one-window for SEZs in Pakistan.
Board of Investment said, “Beginning of the first private SEZ in Pakistan is a testament to the fact that the government is fully committed to facilitating private investors for speedy industrialization in the country.”
According to Chairman Atif Bokhari, both local and foreign investors interested in Pakistan’s SEZs can now simply register online and submit their applications, which would automatically be shared with concerned authorities.
It is worth mentioning here that the government had recently implemented the Electric Vehicle Policy with a set of incentives offered to manufacturers and assemblers of vehicles. The incentives are reportedly encouraging investment in the auto sector.
The government authorities reportedly plan that 30 percent of all new cars, buses, vans, trucks, and jeeps, and 50 percent of all two-, three- and four-wheelers will be electric vehicles by 2030. By 2040, 90pc of vehicles on the road are envisioned as electric.
