FAISALABAD: The Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company is moving to cancel plots held by investors who’ve sat on empty land for nearly a decade, while simultaneously building a 113-acre bonded warehouse and a dedicated community center for Chinese investors.
FIEDMC CEO Qurrat-ul-Ain Memon laid out both plans at a meeting with the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry, telling the gathering that a summary for the two projects is already drafted and headed to the provincial cabinet for approval.
Memon spent her first five to six months in office on administrative reforms rather than ribbon-cuttings, arguing that sustainable progress simply wasn’t possible without a stronger management system first. On Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s directives, FIEDMC digitized its entire approval process through the E-Biz platform, cutting investor wait times from days down to hours.
FIEDMC Industrial Plots
That reform push is now colliding with a long-standing problem: dead land. FIEDMC’s industrial plots rank among the cheapest in the country, yet a Special Investment Facilitation Council survey found that several allottees haven’t even poured foundations after years of holding their plots. Memon said the company will draw a hard line between genuine investors and squatters protecting the former while reclaiming land from the latter. Cancelled plots go straight back into circulation for entrepreneurs ready to build immediately, a move she framed as a direct route to more industrial output, jobs, and exports.
FIEDMC Bonded Warehouse
On the Chinese investment side, FIEDMC is carving out dedicated residential space and will fund housing construction itself, on top of accommodation options already in place. Memon described the project as a way to enable secure movement for Chinese nationals inside the estate’s gated zones and deepen investor confidence more broadly. A separate labor colony is also in the pipeline, aimed at giving industrial workers decent housing near the estates.
Faisalabad Industrial Estate
Transport upgrades are on the table too electric bus services and a passenger rail link connecting the industrial estates to nearby areas are both under consideration. FIEDMC also plans a railway platform inside the estate itself, where Pakistan Railways and Customs will run operations to move freight. A cargo train service linking the estates to Faisalabad, Chak Jhumra, and Chiniot is expected to launch soon, which Memon says will tighten logistics for exporters and manufacturers alike.
Chinese Investors in Faisalabad Industrial Estate
FCCI President Farooq Yousaf Sheikh backed the direction of FIEDMC’s reforms but pushed back on the plot cancellations, arguing genuine allottees willing to start construction should get extra time rather than face immediate termination. He also credited FIEDMC’s improved operations to Memon and Chairman Rana Azhar Waqar, while pressing for infrastructure on FCCI’s own allotted plot and faster movement on a proposed 50-acre Expo Center.
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Sheikh noted the government’s current export target sits at $60 billion, but argued Pakistan could push past $100 billion given the right industrial policy and infrastructure a target that puts FIEDMC’s plot crackdown and Chinese investment push in sharper context.
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