Excerpt from an a
rticle Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2017
KARACHI: A foreign conglomerate offered the Sindh government a proposal to build three state-of-the-art hospitals in Karachi and a complete integrated farming system on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.
The three health facilities the conglomerate — comprising German and Chinese entrepreneurs — is interested to set up in the provincial metropolis are a 200-bed cancer hospital, 200-bed organ transplant facility and an emergency centre with the facility of an air ambulance.
A delegation of the conglomerate — RETech German Group and China Rainbow International Investment Company (CRIIC) — along with their Pakistani representatives met Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah at the CM House have submitted their proposal that also includes a complete integrated farming system in the province with a farm-to-fork concept to cater to domestic and global demand of Halal food.
An official privy to the meeting told Dawn that the foreign delegation wanted to set up their projects on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.
Sustainable farming proposal
The sustainable farming project would be spread over an area of 2,122 acres with 1,204 skilled staff where 6,096 non-skilled staff would be required. This project would cost 732.16 million pounds.
The chief minister was given a presentation in which it was said that the firm jointly wanted to introduce a sustainable farming eco-system for producing poultry, beef cattle, goat/sheep meats and dairy cows.
The firm has expertise to develop and execute a complete integrated farming system, with a farm-to-fork business model in the province to meet both domestic and global market.
In the farm-to-fork concept, every aspect of farming — from breeding, feeding, growing, slaughtering, cutting, processing, packaging, storing and brand marketing — is operated under the highest global quality standards.
The meeting was told that presently 1.8 billion people all over the world want halal food and the halal market was growing rapidly.
The CM also directed the livestock department to meet the delegates and submit a proposal to him. “We have to introduce modern farming methods and technologies in the province to improve our agro economy,” the CM remarked.
CRIIC Chairman Li Dacan, RETech chief executive Arshad Raja and others represented the conglomerate from the UK.
Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Agriculture Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal, Livestock and Fisheries Minister Mohammad Ali Malkani, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, secretaries Sohail Akbar Shah, Fazal Pechuho, Sajid Jamal Abro and other senior officers were also present.
