LAHORE, Nov 29: Punjab Environment Minister Makhdoom Ashfaq Ahmad has said two-stroke engine rickshaws would be banned in January 2007 and polypropylene bags by January next year.

Inaugurating a seminar on “French Equipment and Technology for Agro-Food Industry” here on Tuesday morning, the minister said the ban on two-stroke rickshaws and polypropylene bags was necessary for environment protection.

He said CNG rickshaws had already been introduced in the province for the replacement of two-stroke rickshaws.

He said rickshaws were operating in a few countries of the world because these were not a suitable mode of public transportation and were not allowed by the governments. The provincial government had not decided to ban the use of rickshaws, but introduced environment friendly CNG rickshaws instead of the two-stroke vehicles.

He said the buses operating in the urban areas would also be replaced by those run on CNG after the next five to six years.

The government, he said, was trying to control air and water pollution through its environment protection policies. The decision to phase out the two-stroke rickshaws and buses had been taken to check air pollution and noise and a ban was being imposed on the use of polypropylene bags for because these were not bio-degradable.

He said the government had decided to install four to five filter plants in each of the 3,450 union councils in the province to provide clean drinking water to people. It had also imposed a ban on storage and transportation of milk in plastic chemical drums and was promoting the use of packed and processed milk by facilitating establishment of dairies.

The minister said the government had also decided to shift the industrial and commercial units out of the residential areas. The new industrial estates at Sundar near Lahore and Faisalabad, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan and Sialkot were being developed away from the urban areas. The industrial units had also been ordered to discharge the waste water after proper treatment so that it did not contaminate the ground water.

French Ambassador M. Regis de Belenet said the agriculture sector in his country had increased productivity, checked wastage and improved the quality of produce by employing new technology. The French entrepreneurs wanted to share the new technology with the agriculture sector in Pakistan through joint ventures.

He said a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed with the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock in this connection a day earlier. French Embassy Commercial Department senior official Mrs Bovet said Pakistan’s economy was based on the agriculture sector and needed modern techniques and latest technology for the development of its agro-food industry. The need could be met by the equipment and technology available with France.

According to Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority Chief Executive Officer Shahab Khwaja, tremendous opportunities existed both in France and Pakistan for businessmen to explore and exploit. Many opportunities existed in the agriculture sector in Pakistan owing to a huge demand and supply gap.

The country also offered opportunities in processing and export of agro-based products due to its large agricultural base. It had a large surplus of products like mango pulp, citrus concentrate and potato that could be processed and exported.

He said the livestock and dairy was another attractive sector for investment, as the current industry was inadequate to meet the growing demand of milk and other dairy products. The Pak Dairy Development Company had been established to support the sector, he added.

Provincial Livestock and Dairy Development Secretary Babar Yaqoob said the government was paying maximum attention to the development of the sector and established a Buffalo Research Institute at a cost of Rs340 million. Moreover, 400 chillers were being supplied on a no-profit-no-loss basis to the milk distributors through farmers and dairy associations, he said.

The seminar was jointly organized by Smeda, French Association for Development of International Exchanges of Food and Agricultural Products and Technologies ADEPTA, and the French Embassy.