ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Khalid Iqbal Malik has welcomed the signing of Islamabad Green City Charter by the Mayor and Chairman CDA Sheikh Anser Aziz to adopt UN Urban Environmental Accords for the capital city and termed it a positive development as proper execution of many of its action plans would help in promoting safe and healthy environment in the city. He said this while talking to Sheikh Anser Aziz, Chairman CDA in a meeting.
He said that Islamabad Green City Charter envisaged many good initiatives for conducive business environment as it would increase the use of renewable energy to meet 10 percent peak electric load of city within 7 years, improve energy supply through promoting energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and waste disposals from the city and ensure accessible public parks and recreational open spaces in residential areas. He said implementation of all these initiatives will go a long way in creating a healthy environment for citizens and conducive conditions for business activities. He said that ICCI was ready to sign MoU of cooperation with CDA for implementation of various action plans of this project.
He said Islamabad is the first city of Pakistan that has signed green city charter and emphasized that all stakeholder organizations including Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad, Capital Development Authority, Ministry of Water & Power, Ministry of Climate Change, Pakistan Environmental Protection Authority, Ministry of Petroleum and Capital Administration Division should develop strong coordination to ensure timely implementation of all action plans in order to realize its full benefits for the economy and the residents.
Khalid Iqbal Malik assured that many members of ICCI were ready to extend all possible cooperation to the stakeholder organizations in their endeavors aimed at improving and enhancing the overall environment of Islamabad in line with the action plans based upon UN Urban Environmental Accords. He said successful implementation of all action plans in Islamabad will pave way for replicating this environmental friendly project to the other major cities of Pakistan leading to the development of a Green Pakistan.