Under the present economic recovery, automobile demand has registered a sharp increase in Pakistan. Production of four wheelers has increased to 1,00,000 units while of two wheelers to 3,00,000, which is 50 percent growth over the previous year.
This was stated by the Director, Japan External Trade Organisation, Shinichiro Ashizawa during a seminar on "Sheet Metal Press Technology" organised by Jetro, here on Saturday.
He said that due to this situation there was a high demand of auto parts from the assemblers and besides this, improved quality was also being pursued. It was not an easy task to meet the high standard of quality required by the assemblers and many local vendors not being able to meet the challenge might be feeling embarrassed, he added.
The Jetro director further explained that latest by 2007, the condition of local contents would be removed under WTO regime and as such, automobile industry would enter a globally competitive environment. In that scenario, it would be very difficult and hard to survive for those vendors who would not adopt modern production technology, he opined.
Ashizawa said that under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) which was due to be implemented in three years from now, global standard would be demanded by each member country. Therefore, he said, that the period of next three years would be important and the Pakistani manufacturers would have to make strong endeavours to achieve the high quality standards in order to survive in the international market.
The Jetro official said that actually the Japanese assemblers have realised the ability of Pakistani work force and they had been assisting the vendors and investing in the technical matters.
He said Jetro also understood the significance of the next three years for this industry and therefore had invited high calibre expert on sheet metal press technology to provide guidance to Pakistani automobile assemblers. Ashizawa added that it was Jetro's efforts to contribute to some extent for the betterment and improvement of the automobile industry of Pakistan.
Later, Hiroshi Ito, the Japanese expert on Sheet Metal and Dies Technology delivered a technical lecture on the subject and replied to the queries of the participants, while Jetro's Automobile expert, Minoru Ohira presented the closing remarks.
Vice-Chairman, Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts & Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM) Mehdi Ali Rizvi also spoke on the occasion.
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