Degree

Master of Business Administration Executive

Faculty / School

Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)

Year of Award

2014

Project Type

MBA Executive Research Project

Access Type

Restricted Access

Executive Summary

The economy of Pakistan has consecutively performed poorly for last seven years. The growth rate has been fluctuating between 3-4% and the Grass Domestic Product (GDP) has only expanded to 3.59% in the FY- 2012-13'. This manifest that to have a sustained and significant impact on the poverty, Pakistan needs increase growth rates to 7-8% “ for which rapid industrialization is essential. The Government of Sindh, in order to accelerate the economic growth is developing the Zulfiqarabad City Project, the project would be entrusted with the status of special economic zone. The Zulfikarabad project is started at District Thatta as the business industry has been halted in Hyderabad and Karachi, because of very expensive land price, fast growing urbanization and very poor basic infrastructure alongwith worsening law &. order situation.

Zulfikarabad city is at its initial stage of development, the project will be having schools, colleges, parks, residential areas, industrial projects, special Industrial and Agro economic zones. The project’s vision is to provide the investors with the world class infrastructures, to accelerate exports and special incentives entitled under Special Economic Zone Act 2012. The research paper aim to investigate 1) feasibility of Zulfiqarabad project as a potential special economic zone of Sindh / Pakistan and projected outcomes in terms of increase in exports. Foreign Direct Investment inflow, and opportunities to provide jobs. 2) The key constraints and policy to assess the possible impacts of project on the environment, and how these impacts may possibly be mitigated through available policy options.

The project has many opportunities and bottle necks which could be a deciding factor in its success or failure. During the research all the challenges and opportunities have been highlighted and it has been concluded that project is economically viable to be undertaken at the proposed location provided that number of issues including the lack of infrastructure, availability of the sufficient finances, and potential environmental impacts are genuinely addressed. Besides that it has also been argued in length that success of the project significantly depends on the award of status to Zulfiqarabad project as Special Economic Zone, which will pave a way to attract huge foreign investment because of special incentives offered for the investors, enterprises and developers in the form of tax exemption on import of any type of capital goods.

The project will help more in decreasing pressure on urbanization in Hyderabad and Karachi through providing Jobs and better services. The participation of the Federal Government is integral to make project a success and to address the financial constraints it has been proposed that development work should be completed in phases which will be helpful for the developers to properly extend the development work on the demand of build up rather than mounting all the zone at once.

Pages

44

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