Lahore, August 06, 2018 (PPI-OT): Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA) has urged the forthcoming government to include Chemical Industry in its first 100 days development Plan and form a task force on emergent basis to tap offers of the foreign investors for establishing Crude-Naphtha Cracker Petrochemical Complex. Mr. Iqbal Kidwai, Secretary General PCMA, in a press statement informed that after the investment offers from UAE and China, a serious proposition had also been received from South Korea’s world renowned group; “the Lotte Chemical”. He highly appreciated the services of Mr. Adnan Iqbal, Commercial Counsellor in the embassy of Pakistan in Seoul, who had held meeting with Lotte Chemical to share the information provided by PCMA on need of a Petrochemical Complex bearing crude refinery and a naphtha steam cracker in Pakistan.
He said that PCMA since its inception, has been highlighting need of a Petrochemical Complex for Pakistan and efforts have ultimately attracted the attention of local and foreign investors to invest in this momentous project, which requires strong patronage and support from the government authorities to bring the project on ground.
He was confident that the Complex, when established would develop downstream of chemical industry by producing hundreds of high value chemicals within Pakistan, which will gradually decrease the imports of such chemicals with a single first year impact of around USD 2-3 billion import substitution. He said that the newly elected government can easily put a feather into their hat by just patronizing the establishment of Petrochemical complex by formulating a task force in consultation with the PCMA.
PCMA Secretary General further informed that the chemical imports of Pakistan amounts to over USD 14 billion, which is almost 17% of the total import bill and each year there is an average increase of 7 % on this account. On the other hand the global chemical industry, at present, is a $4 trillion enterprise, which impacts nearly every sector of the economy.
The chemical businesses have prime significance in virtually every nation, driving innovation in six continents and supporting more than 20 million jobs. Unfortunately, due to absence of even a single Cracker Complex, down-stream industry of Pakistan is dependent on imports, whereas India established its first Cracker in 1992 and currently it owns Eight Crackers, Iran despite the sanctions has been able to put in place Seven, Singapore owns Five huge capacity state of the art Crackers, Saudi Arabia owns Twelve. But, Pakistan has no Cracker so far.
Although, we have made considerable progress in basic inorganic chemicals like Soda Ash, Caustic Soda, Sulphuric Acid and Chlorine with sufficient production capacity, however the lack of availability of other chemicals including petrochemicals leads to dependence on imports which surely does not benefit the economy, PCMA Secretary General added.
For more information, contact:
Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA)
407-Eden Heights, Jail Road, Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-35786867
E-mail: bds@pcma.org.pk
Website: www.pcma.org.pk
PPI News Agency