Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah holds meeting with Chinese Delegation regarding “Introduction of Premium Energy” at CM House in Karachi on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. – File Photo
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah held a meeting with seven-member Chinese delegation at the CM House, on Wednesday.
The meeting was also attended by Advisor to CM for Investment Zubair Motiwala, Secretary to CM Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary Investment Sind
Prime Minister of China during his visit to Pakistan had expressed that his country wants to invest in Pakistan particularly in the energy sector.
Chairman of state owned China Godian Group, Ms. Renaiquin, in her discussion informed that their group is engaged in Mining and Power sector based with coal power, solar energy, wind energy and also in petro-chemicals.
She said that their group is generating 88,000 MW of power in China and intends to invest in Thar coal and, all other projects under infrastructure.
She further informed that their group is generating 6,000 MW through solar system and 3,000 MW through wind power generation. Besides, they possess all types of machinery, equipment, operators with maintenance facility, she said.
The Chinese group informed that they will prepare detailed proposal and the same will be sent to the Sindh Government for further negotiations.
Advisor to CM Sindh for Investments, Zubair Motiwala said that the project is commercially viable and the Chinese group can also utilise sources of solar energy and wind energy together with coal gasification for power generation.
Sindh Secretary for Thar Coal and Energy Department, Aijaz Ali Khan, in his detailed briefing informed that there are coal reserve of 186.560 billion tonnes in Sindh, 235 million tonnes in Punjab, 217 million tonnes in Balochistan, 90 million tonnes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 9- million tonnes is Azad Kashmir.
Aijaz Khan also pointed to the socio-economic impact of load-shedding and said that Pakistan is facing acute energy shortages leading to socio-economic costs of load shedding estimated at $ 37 billion between 2007 and 2012 while loss of Rs 219 billion to industrial sector alone during 2008 in Pakistan.
He said that the vision for Thar coal is to develop it as a source of power generation for energy and economic security of the country and as a Hub of petro chemical industry while as per goal, at least 10,000 MW power will be generated by 2020.
Secretary Thar Coal Energy Department informed that the Thar coal field has been declared as Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with exemptions on with-holding tax and zero per cent Customs duties on import of coal mining equipment and machinery.
He added that the Sindh Government has approved an amount of Rs 972.070 million for the construction of an Airport at Thar for the coal fields.