Zain Khan Malghani
Multan: Prominent industrialist Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali Anjum, Chairman of the SM Group of Companies (Volka & Kims), has proposed a comprehensive national policy for developing district-wise industrial clusters after returning from a five-day study visit to China. Sharing his observations, he stressed that Pakistan should learn from China’s economic and technological experience rather than attempt to simply replicate its development model.
He noted that Pakistan and China were founded just two years apart—in 1947 and 1949 respectively—yet China has achieved extraordinary progress in infrastructure, industry, exports, technology, and human resource development over the following decades, offering valuable lessons for Pakistan.
During his visit, Anjum closely observed China’s modern industrial systems, automation, transportation networks, small industries, home-based businesses, and industrial clusters. He explained that China’s real success lies not in large factories or high-speed trains alone, but in an integrated economic structure connecting large industries, small enterprises, home-based businesses, rural production units, skilled workers, raw-material suppliers, and exporters through unified supply chains. He cited China’s CR400 Fuxing trains, which run at 350 km/h, and the next-generation CR450 currently under development for 400 km/h, as examples of how sustained research and indigenous technology drive national connectivity—suggesting Pakistan could similarly modernize its freight rail system with Chinese cooperation.
A key lesson, he said, is that infrastructure development should extend beyond major cities. Providing rural areas and small industrial centers with quality roads, reliable and affordable electricity, high-speed internet, warehousing, cold storage, and training facilities would allow them to meaningfully contribute to national production and exports.
Anjum proposed that Pakistan immediately formulate a National Cottage and Cluster Industry Development Policy, under which each district’s specific productive potential and local skills would be identified and matched with specialized industrial clusters. These clusters would offer shared machinery centers, testing labs, design and packaging facilities, technical training, quality certification, easy financing, credit guarantees, affordable power, and digital marketing and export support. He also called for a simplified one-window system to handle business registration, taxation, banking, and electricity connections, arguing that excessive paperwork discourages entrepreneurship and that the state should facilitate business rather than obstruct it.
He emphasized the need for a broader socio-economic shift—from producing job-seekers to producing entrepreneurs who generate employment. He illustrated this with the example of a small home-based unit where family members manufacture goods, receive orders online, and ship products nationally or internationally via courier and logistics services, calling this the real strength of cottage industry, particularly for women and young people.
Highlighting China’s cluster-based economy, Anjum explained how concentrating similar businesses in one area lowers production costs, improves quality, and strengthens competitiveness by making raw materials, labor, machinery, and buyers all locally accessible. He noted that China integrates small businesses into large industrial supply chains rather than treating them as separate, and recommended Pakistan adopt the same approach, with industrial clusters built around major factories.
He pointed to Pakistan’s district-level strengths—Multan and South Punjab in mangoes, agriculture, and textiles; Sialkot in sports goods and surgical instruments; Faisalabad in textiles; Gujranwala in engineering products—arguing these should be linked with modern machinery, certification, branding, e-commerce, and export systems.
On CPEC’s next phase, he urged prioritizing SMEs, cottage industries, industrial clusters, joint ventures, local vendor development, and technology transfer alongside major projects, including local manufacturing of machinery and spare parts with Chinese partners to reduce import dependence.
He also proposed sending Pakistani government officials, engineers, technical officers, and policymakers on purposeful, outcome-driven study visits to China’s industrial and research centers, paired with Train-the-Trainer programs and university-industry research linkages.
Anjum concluded that Pakistan should not merely import Chinese machines but absorb the underlying knowledge, discipline, and innovation systems behind them, stating that a strong national economy is built not by a few large factories, but by millions of small, organized productive units connected through effective supply chains.
