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Century Steel Group, a Chinese steel producer, has threatened to pull out its investment and shut down its operations in Pakistan unless its concerns are addressed, Geo News reported.
In a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the company's CEO, Li Chunjian, expressed frustration over unresolved issues at the Rashakai Special Economic Zone in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. "The company had reached the decision to wrap up its business and withdraw investment from the country as the government departments, responsible for handling foreign direct investment (FDI) in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Rashakai Special Economic Zone (RSEZ) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, failed to resolve multitude of their problems," said CEO Li Chunjian. "This will be our last notice to the Government of Pakistan; if the problems are not resolved immediately, we will start dismantling the plant from the RSEZ," the company said. Earlier, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed a committee under Federal Minister for Communications, Privatisation and Board of Investment Abdul Aleem Khan to address all of the company's complaints, according to a senior official statement. The News reported citing a senior government official, that the prime minister has constituted a committee under Federal Minister for Communications, Privatisation and Board of Investment Abdul Aleem Khan to address all of the company's complaints. The committee includes members from both the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and federal governments. According to the steel group, they arrived in Pakistan with big goals and intended to build up the country's biggest steel mill in three stages in the first RSEZ of CPEC in KP. Century Steel Group has invested over USD 30 million in the first phase of its steel project in Pakistan, with plans to produce 500,000 tonnes of steel products annually, as reported by Geo News. The company had planned to invest an additional USD 200 million in the next two phases of the project, which would involve the transfer of advanced steel technology from China to Pakistan. This investment would have enabled the production of downstream steel products in Pakistan. Within five years, the final capacity for steel products would be 1.5 million tonnes, China's steel giant said. "We aimed to contribute to the GDP of Pakistan and also to create thousands of jobs as well as build exports of steel products to the regional markets. However, due to the following unresolved issues for over five years, we have finally decided to exit from Pakistan and report this matter to the Chinese government/embassy and the international press as a last resort," it stated in the letter. "We have been waiting for the last five years at RSEZ and maintenance of our staff and expenses has caused us big losses to the tune of USD 7.5 million," the letter added. (ANI)
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