To save engineering sector ‘Country should replace its costly melting process with Turkish technology’

FAISALABAD: Pakistan must replace its old, redundant and costly melting and casting process with new Turkish technology to save its light engineering sector which was on the verge of collapse due to high cost of energy, said Atif Munir Sheikh, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI).

Addressing an awareness session organized by Research and Development (R&D) department of the FCCI in collaboration with the Foundry Association, he said that the basic objective of FCCI is to give much needed awareness to its members to adopt new technologies to improve quality of its products and cut down cost of doing business with and innovative ideas.

He appreciated the role of R & D and said that it has arranged this session to give awareness to local foundry owners about cost effective Turkish technology. He said that Turkish experts should not only give lectures and presentations but they must demonstrate this technology in selected local foundries.

He said that our members are generally shy of taking bold decisions but it is imperative to take risks and open new avenues of progress and prosperity. He said that in Gujranwala every house has been converted into a small industrial unit where parts of electronics appliances are being manufactured or fabricated.

He said that FCCI has inked MOUs with NTU, UAF and GCU to provide practical training to the interns of these Alma meters.

He said that generally our students get theoretical knowledge but they lack practical expertise which is necessary to survive in this competitive age. He said that FCCI is utilizing its efforts to arrange hands-on training to the young graduates. He also appreciated the efforts of Engineer Ahmad Hassan and Dr Habib Aslam Gaba to promote industry- academia linkages in Faisalabad.

Asim Farooq, General Secretary All Pakistan Foundry Association said that this important segment of the economy was facing threats of closure due to high cost of production.

He hoped that new Turkish technology would save our small foundry units as it could be easily replaced with the existing infrastructure.

Mian Ashfaq Ashraf of Faisalabad foundry association offered vote of thanks while a cheque of Rs 1 million was presented to President FCCI for the flood relief fund. Atif Munir Sheikh appreciated the gesture of the foundry association and said that FCCI has adopted two villages in far flung rural areas of Jaffar Abad and Naseer Abad (Balochistan). “We would rescue the people, provide them relief and construct their damaged houses,” he said and added that we have also taken the responsibility to provide them livestock so that they could restore their normal life.

Earlier a comprehensive presentation was given on Turkish technology.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022