Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar on Saturday inaugurated three-day 14thBuild Asia Exhibition organised by a local event company at Karachi Expo Centre on Saturday. The mayor said that the world was giving importance to Karachi city owing to ongoing many mega projects. He said China was playing key role in development projects. He informed that Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had signed many development projects with Shenyang City of China and several Chinese companies had also inked accords in other projects on federal and provincial level. He said that delegates from China, Turkey and Iran were participating in exhibition. “The federal government should activate Pakistani consulates world-wide for attracting exhibitors,” he maintained. Waseem Akhtar said that Sindh Local Government was complying with orders of Supreme Court of Pakistan for removing encroachment in city. He said that government wanted to give healthy environment to the residents of Karachi and wished to create a safe city. He said that anti-encroachment drive was aimed to clean the city for attracting tourists from across the globe. On the occasion, Vice Admiral (r) Arifullah Hussaini said that purpose of exhibition was to introduce advanced technology for construction industry. He said that China was far ahead in developing projects as 54-storey buildings completed in just 19 days. “On the other hand, a small project in Pakistan takes over a year time,” he said. “We have good people but we need to ignore negativity,” he remarked. Khursheed Nizam, the president of event organising firm said that about 250 delegates from 20 countries were attending Build Asia Exhibition. He said that companies from USA, UK, Iran, Italy, China, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, Oman and UAE were attending to showcase building material and construction machinery. “A seminar on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is being organised at exhibition to highlight importance of projects,” he added. “The exhibition is showcasing construction machinery and material, steel, PVC, marble and furniture. The exhibition is aimed to reduce cost of construction through use of advanced technology,” he said. Foreign dignitaries and representatives of Pakistan Stone Development Company, Constructor Association of Pakistan and All Pakistan Marble Industries Association are attending exhibition. The organisers are expecting that over 50,000 people will visit three-day Build Asia event. Published in Daily Times, December 16th 2018.