Gujranwala - Economy

Economy

Gujranwala is a rapidly developing commercial and industrial nerve center in Pakistan. It is playing a major role to support the Pakistan economy. It is a large industrial city with numerous textile mills, cutlery industry and large agricultural processing plants. Major exports include rice, sanitary fittings, textiles, plastic furniture, pots, room coolers and heaters, gas stove, agricultural tools and equipments, electrical equipment, carpets, glass goods, surgical equipment, leather products, metal utensils, automotive machinery parts, and machinery for military uses, transformers, electric fans, hosiery, washing machines, rice husking plants, agricultural implements, motorcycles, food products, domestic & industrial motors are being manufactured which have been displayed in Made-in-Gujranwala exhibitions every year. Its industries have developed and introduced various products at the national & international level. More than 500,000 workers have been deployed in the industrial units in Gujranwala while its share in national production was 9 per cent and in revenue 8 per cent.

The rural areas around Gujranwala produce a large variety of agricultural goods, the main crops grown here are wheat, rice, potato, barley and millet.

The Gujranwala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) is established and Malik Zaheer ul Haq is current President of GCCI. Because of its ideal location on economic lifeline of G.T. Road in Punjab, Gujranwala city has long been a centre of trade and industry. The city was famous for its metal utensils manufacturing industry even under British rule before independence. Rapid growth was however, seen after independence in 1947. The number of industrial units enhanced from 40 in 1947 to more than 20,600 industrial units of Gujranwala were playing an important role in the national economy.

Gujranwala, Gujrat and Sialkot are the "golden triangle" of the division, playing important role in national economy, which has been acknowledged by foreign trade delegations during their visits in city. About 60% of Pakistan's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are located in the region of this Export Triangle of Pakistan.

Away from the international border, the city attracted artisans and investors from all sides and today it has three industrial estates.The Duddar Export Processing Zone is located on the main Gujranwala-Lahore Grand Trunk Road. The Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) and Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) jointly developed this Export Processing Zone worth Rs99.40 million (US$1.71 million) Both planned and unplanned settlements are emerging.

.It ranks as the third largest industrial centre in the country, after Karachi and Faisalabad, in view of the availability of raw material and skilled labour. The Gujranwala Chamber of Commerce and Industry(GCCI) is the representative body of traders,and has around 3,800 registered members, while there are also several unregistered businesses that operate informally.

The nature of industry here is varied and vast with major part of light engineering industry besides textile, leather, electrical engineering, auto industry.ceramics, cutlery,manufacturing plants and large agricultural processing plants and many others.The major development is that the manufacturers of quality products have devolved on exports, Its annual export is 700 million $.Apart from export, the industry has lowered the import bill to around 1.2 billion dollars by producing items locally that were previously imported from other countries.The major industrial companies in Gujranwala include Sunny Sports(manufacturers of high quality exercise equipment), Master Industries, Super Asia Industry(also awned Hardees restaurant in Pakistan), Mughal Steels, Paklite,Pakson(Boss),Sonex,Golden Fuji, Gujranwala food Industries(JOJO) .

The main source of energy is a hydro-electric project on the Chenab River. The city also has a dry port that has contributed to the export growth of the city.

As of June 2012 Pakistan's electricity problems were so severe that violent riots took place all across Punjab. According to protesters load shedding in Gujranwala was depriving the city from electricity 22 hours a day, causing businesses to go bust and making living extremely hard.