LAHORE: The officials of South Punjab Forest Company (SPFC) called on Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Abdul Basit and discussed ways to foster mutual partnership, said a press release issued on Saturday. The SPFC delegation comprised of company’s CEO Tahir Rasheed, Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Salman Ahmad and Director (Projects and Operations), Muhammad Awais. The meeting aimed to discuss the opportunities that SPFC offers to the investors and also to listen to the concerns of the LCCI representatives to make the process inclusive. Any suggestions in this regard can also be incorporated in the upcoming feasibility study, he said. While briefing the LCCI, Rasheed said that SPFC was Punjab government’s entity, established as a public sector company, which aims to stimulate private sector investment alongside public money to reduce deforestation in Punjab and to combine forest conservation with sustainable economic development. “Punjab Forest Department, after approval of the Punjab government, allocated a plain area of 134,995 acres to SPFC that mainly falls in DG Khan and Bahawalpur divisions”, he said. The company aims to grow forests in the designated areas of Punjab Forestry, wildlife and fisheries departments, which would help create new jobs in rural areas and provide sustained source of raw material to the industry, he added. Rasheed said the investment objective of the company was to encourage the investment in assets that could be established and managed on an environmentally and socially sustainable basis. The SPFC aims to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ‘Life on land’, which focuses on managing forests sustainable, restoring degraded lands and combating desertification etc, he added. He said the initiative would eventually contribute to reducing pressure on the existing forests adding that halting deforestation was also vital to reduce the impacts of climate change. “The company believed that this approach would generate both long term capital appreciation for partners and an attractive and sustainable income yield. In future, the SPFC would seek to invest in forestry projects that would be certified by a reputable forest management certification scheme”, he informed. LCCI President Abdul Basit urged the SPFC to brief the LCCI members next month, so that the concept of sustainable forestry could be promoted. There was a need to educate people regarding this concept and media could play an important role by raising awareness in this regard, he said. “We have to recognise that forestry is an integral feature of sustainable economic development. It should be the focus in policy corridors for generating new economic opportunities. The country can make the agriculture sector stable and valuable for economy by developing forestry as a commercially viable sector”, he added.