Following the award of Hi-tech Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status to NUST’s iconic project of National Science & Technology Park (NSTP), established to support and promote Research and Innovation, the first NSTP SEZ Committee’s was held on 03 December 2021 at NUST.
Dr Rizwan Riaz, Pro-Rector (RIC) NUST and VP NSTP, chaired the meeting which was attended by its full members, including Mr. Abdul Samie Director SEZ BOI, Mr. Abdullah Khan, Assistant Commissioner – ICT, Lt Col Shakeel Ahmed Shah (Retd), Industrial & SEZ Manager – BOI, Mr. Aamir Naveed, Assistant Director Industries & Labour Welfare – ICT, and Mr. Adnan Ejaz, Director – NSTP.
The Committee reviewed Zone Enterprise applications of M/s Rapidev (Private) Limited, with planned investment of $20 million in R&D for Defence Technologies, and M/s HATO Agricultural Lighting (Private) Limited with planned investment of PKR 20 million for R&D in Agri-tech.
The committee unanimously agreed to award Zone Enterprise status to the said companies. This will help increase productivity and decrease the costs of production through high-tech interventions.
Award of the status will give import duty and income tax exemptions to these enterprises which will catalyse their transformation into a national and regional success, which in turn will uplift the socioeconomic environment for the masses by way of rapid production of disruptive technologies, and will help improve the nation’s Global Innovation Index standing.
