Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma today announced that the Government of India (GoI) would soon set up a mega leather cluster at Jalandhar at a cost of Rs.125 crore to boost the leather industry in the region.This was disclosed by Sharma who along with his team of officers held a high level meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister . Parkash Singh Badal and senior officers of the state government here at Punjab Bhawan. Sharma apprised the Chief Minister that the upcoming cluster at Jalndhar was amongst the 7 such clusters being set up by the Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy.Union Commerce Minister also announced that a cold storage facility would be provided at the Cargo Terminal of Chandigarh-Mohali International Airport to boost the exports of vegetables, fruits and live saving drugs. He also announced to revive the erstwhile Dhariwal Woolen Mill at Dhariwal as the Ministry of Textile had already taken in principle decision to run this mill by National Textile Corporation.Expressing gratitude to Sharma, the Chief Minister said that he was highly indebted to him for personally visiting the state along with a battery of officers to resolves the long pending issues of state related to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce & Textile.Conceding another demand put forth by Badal regarding the completion of Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) to treat the effluents being discharged by the Small and Medium dyeing industry in Ludhiana at a cost of Rs 437 crore, the Union Minister said that he had constituted a high level committee under the chairmanship of Secretary Textiles who would visit Ludhiana within next two weeks and submit the report to him so that Ministry could recommend the case of setting up of this CETP at Ludhiana under Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (IIUS) of the Department of Industrial Promotion of Policy (DIPP). He informed Badal that under the scheme 60% of funding would be done by Centre as the latter had demanded Rs 264 crore accordingly from the centre for the completion of the project.Demanding direct export of Kinnow to Bangladesh via land route of Kolkatta, the Chief Minister sought intervention of the Ministry to curb the malpractice of distress sale and subsequent exploitation of Kinnow growers of the state by the local traders. Responding to the issue Sharma asked the Director General Foreign Trade Kolkatta to resolve the issue at the earliest to pave a way for the smooth export of Kinnow directly from Punjab.On the demand raised by Badal for allowing the export of wheat to Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries via Attari border, the Union Minister apprised him that the matter was being taken up by the GoI with the national Government of Pakistan and a possible headway was expected soon.In the new regime of Integrated Check Post at Attari-Wagah border, the Chief Minister reiterated the issue of export which was restricted to only 137 items from India to Pakistan through land route via ICP Attari, on the contrary about 6000 items were being exported from Mumbai to Karachi. Urging the Union Minister to allow level playing field for exports of all the items which were permitted from Mumbai via Attari too, Badal said that this step would boost the potential of bilateral trade between both the countries. Replying to his demand the Union Minister said that the matter was already under the active consideration of both the Governments and hoped of positive outcome in this regard. Badal also raised the issue of giving a financial package to compensate the state for the loss suffered due to the flight of the industry from here to the neighboring states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarkhand in view of the Industrial concessions given to these states. The Chief Minister demanded that if it was not feasible then atleast Centre should show magnanimity by giving this package atleast to the border districts of the state.Accepting another demand raised by the Chief Minister to allow trade from Attari border through containers instead of sacks, Sharma assured him that the Ministry would soon issue orders to facilitate the traders of the region for exporting their goods. The Union Minister also informed Badal that he would soon take up the matter for providing Additional Railway racks and creating warehouse facility at Railway Yard in Attari with the Ministry of Railways.Taking up the issue of the stringent terms and conditions set up by the Union government to set up the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the Chief Minister urged Sharma to relax the conditions of minimum land requirement in view of exorbitant land prices in the state. Badal emphasized that it should be entirely left to the Developers and the prospective investors to prove the viability of the project on the available land. The Union Minister assured Badal that the issue would be addressed in the new guidelines to be issued by the GoI. Sharma also informed the Chief Minister that the GoI had selected the industrial towns of Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Batala under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (IIUS), to provide much needed impetus for the promotion of trade and industry in the region. He also mentioned that the industrial units manufacturing toys, sports goods and readymade garments of the state have been selected by the Union government for providing special assistance to them. He also pulged the details on the new National Manufacturing Policy aimed at enhancing the GDP of Industrial growth which was now stagnated at 16% to atleast 25-26% and urged Badal to make optimum utilization of this policy which had another in built component of creating 100 million skilled jobs to cater to the needs the small scale industry. Under this policy planned industrial integrated townships would be developed across the country to accelerate the pace of industrialization. Badal also raised the issue of extending the Eastern Freight Corridor from Son Nagar (West Bengal) to Ludhiana and Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC Western) upto Ludhiana and further to Attari via Amritsar, as it would enormously propel the trade and commerce activity in the state. Sharma told the Chief Minister that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had already accorded in principle approval for the extension of DMIC to Ludhiana via Rewari. The Union Minister also said that he would again take up the matter with the Ministry of Railways to intensify its efforts for the extension of eastern corridor from Ludhiana to Attari via Amritsar, which was the need of the hour to further give fillip top export in the wake of ICP at Wagah Attari.Responding to another vital issue raised by Badal regarding the sharing of information concerned with the list of respective holidays amongst the officers of India and Pakistan and trading community on either side, the Union Minister said that the process had already been set in motion by both the National governments and a consensus would be evolved on a uniform pattern of holidays to avoid any sort on inconvenience to the traders. Sharma assured the Chief Minister that he would soon get the other issues raised by him pertaining to trade by land route between India & Pakistan and Gulf countries, introducing barter system (tax free trade) as allowed in Kashmir, permission for trade through Pakistan territory to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Nations & Middle-East countries as permissible in the case of Afghanistan, simplification of procedure for issuing Visa besides introduction of “Freight Equalization Scheme” examined by the Ministry so that these could be resolved amicably to the advantage of Punjab.Later addressing the media persons immediately after the meeting, Sharma replying to a query on the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), said that since several Chief Minister’s were yet to respond so therefore the matter was held in abeyance adding that he would like all the Chief Ministers to respond on this issue before taking a final decision. Since our country is a Union of states we abide by its federal character and therefore are bound by the consensus on the issue.Prominent amongst those who attended the meeting included Cabinet Ministers Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon and Anil Joshi, Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh, Principal Secretary Industry and Commerce AR Talwar, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister SK Sandhu, Secretary Food and Civil Supplies DS Grewal.Union Industry and Commerce Minister was accompanied by Secretary Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Saurabh Chandra, CEO DMIC Amitabh Kanth, Joint Secretary Department of Commerce DS Dhesi, Joint Secretaries DIPP Ms Anjali Prasad and Talleen Kumar, Joint Director General Foreign Trade Anil Aggarwal.