Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: As the inauguration of Rashakai Special Economic Zone (RSEZ) is just around the corner, locals are optimistic that this flagship project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would change the fate and face of the area.
According to a report published on Wednesday, RSEZ would attract local and foreign investors, generate development, create thousands of jobs and will provide economic and social services.
Farmanullah, 31, is an unemployed young man living in a small town adjacent to RSEZ said “Lots of unemployed youth would get jobs on their doorstep, Our village would also prosper,”. According to him, many people from the surrounding villages would get jobs in factories at RSEZ.
Spreading over an area of around 1,000 acres of land, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Managing Company (KPEZDMC) and China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) are developing the zone.
Hamid Khan, a resident of Wali Interchange, said even before groundbreaking, the villagers have started receiving benefits. According to him, the access road from Wali Interchange to RSEZ zero point is beneficial for them as the villagers are now connected to the Islamabad Peshawar Motorway (M-1) via it.
RSEZ is connected to all the provinces of Pakistan through airport, dry port, railway station, motorway and highways. The zone is located at the confluence of five major districts of KP including Nowshera, Mardan and Swabi, Charsadda and Peshawar.
The connected districts possess fertile lands, which is suitable for growing different kinds of cash crops and vegetable. “The economic zone has predominant investment feasibility for industries in fruit and food processing and textile,” said Zahid Khan from Turo village in Mardan. He said that besides working in agricultural land, now the local would avail opportunity to work in food processing units in the economic zone.
