ISLAMABAD: One of Pakistan’s largest domestic cement producers, Lucky Cement, will set up a hybrid wind and solar power project under the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), state media said on Monday.
Private investment is low and declining in Pakistan, which has very low rates of private investment relative to regional and comparable countries, around one-third of the South Asia average, according to World Bank data released in 2023. Private investment declined from an average of 13.7 percent of GDP in the 2000s to around 10 percent in FY21.
The government set up the SIFC last year to attract foreign investment and also create better conditions and remove bottlenecks for domestic companies who have historically faced unfair competition from state-owned entities undertaking commercial operations and received little support when seeking to access new overseas markets.
“Special Investment Facilitation Council is supporting private companies for development of energy sector,” Radio Pakistan reported. “As part of these efforts, Lucky Cement has planned a hybrid wind and solar power project which will generate environment friendly electricity.”
In the past, Lucky Cement has commissioned a 42.8 MW solar power plant in Karachi.
Power consumption in Pakistan has declined 8-10 percent year on year over the past three quarters, according to energy ministry data. Power consumption is a significant economic indicator in the developing economy and another expected decline this year underscores challenges facing the newly elected government in debt-laden Pakistan, amid growing discontent among the poor.
Poor and middle class households are still feeling the impact of the International Monetary Fund’s bailout of Pakistan last year, which contributed to rising retail prices including fuel and electricity charges.
Power cuts are also frequent in Pakistan, especially in far flung rural areas, due to grid issues, delays in importing fuel and hard currency shortages, though the frequency of such outages have reduced in the recent months.
Lucky Cement to set up hybrid wind-solar power plant under Pakistan’s special investment body
https://arab.news/vurcm
Lucky Cement to set up hybrid wind-solar power plant under Pakistan’s special investment body
- In the past, Lucky Cement has commissioned 42.8 MW solar power plant in Karachi
- Power consumption in Pakistan has declined 8-10% year on year in past 3 quarters
Gunmen kidnap nine laborers in southwestern Pakistan, say officials
- Gunmen abducted six laborers from Khuzdar district, three from Barkhan on Saturday night, say officials
- No group has claimed responsibility for kidnappings but separatist BLA group has targeted laborers in Balochistan
QUETTA: Unidentified gunmen this week kidnapped nine laborers from two separate construction sites in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, police and government officials said on Sunday, as security forces conduct search operations to recover them.
The first incident occurred on Saturday night in the mountainous district of Khuzdar, where armed men abducted workers from a water channel construction site.
“Six laborers working for a private construction company were kidnapped after armed men stormed a construction site of a water channel in Mola, a mountainous town in Khuzdar,” Senior Superintendent of Police Khuzdar Shahzad Umar Abbas told Arab News.
He said the laborers were from Sindh and Balochistan, adding that police teams have started search operations to recover the kidnapped laborers.
The second incident also took place during Saturday night when gunmen abducted three laborers from Dola river located around 12 kilometers from Barkhan city in Balochistan.
Abdullah Khosa, deputy commissioner of Barkhan, said armed men came from the nearby mountains at around 9:30 p.m. and kidnapped the laborers while they were inside their camp.
“Security forces have been in pursuit of the kidnappers and search operations are going on for the safe recovery of the laborers,” Khosa told Arab News.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has in the past claimed abducting and killing laborers.
The BLA has targeted laborers mostly from Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province in the recent past. Ethnic Baloch militant groups such as the BLA accuse the central government and Punjab of monopolizing profits from Balochistan’s natural resources. The state denies these allegations.
Balochistan, which shares porous borders with Afghanistan and Iran, has been the scene of a low-lying insurgency for decades. Militants have frequently targeted government officials, security forces, laborers and Chinese personnel in the area.
The BLA launched a series of coordinated attacks in Balochistan on Jan. 30-31 which claimed over 50 lives while the army said 216 militants were killed.
