Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Seiji Kojima has urged the corporate sector to improve competitiveness to survive the tide of globalisation. "The corporate sector should stay innovative and move up the technological ladder," he said in his speech at AOTS, 8th SAFAAS Convention here at a hotel on Saturday.
Whose speech was followed by Engineering Development Board Chief Executive Officer Almas Haider, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Shahid Hassan Sheikh, Japanese Honorary Consul Amer Shirazi, Association of Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) Chairman Ihlaq Ahmad Malik, AOTS Managing Director Toshikazu Kumazawa and Punjab University Vice Chancellor Dr Arif Butt also spoke.
Speaking on the occasion Kojima said, "Since the present world is moving even further towards economic globalisation, today's businesses have to operate in an environment of global economic integration where changes in one part of the world affect another."
He said that JICA, JETRO, AITS and other Japanese organisations were ready to assist Saarc countries through human resource development and the transfer of technology. He said AOTS were playing a pivotal role in technology transfer, capacity building and bringing industrial and economic development in this region. He also said the share of trade to GDP for Saarc countries was far below that of the East Asian economies.
"Accordingly, the intra-regional trade is also limited. In spite of these characters, these countries will benefit from regional trade in the long run because of improved competitiveness and its potentiality as a large market. Japan will assist Saarc countries through providing information on Japan's experiences in East Asia," he said.
Haider said Pakistan's government thanked her Japanese counterpart for extending technical co-operation, but he said the latter should increase the number of technical scholarships so that maximum number of people could get benefit out of it. Sheikh said there was a growing competition from the regional countries having impact upon exports and industries.
Pakistan's exports mainly is agro-based products, which apart from the problem of low productivity, are facing with several "technical barriers to trade" and compliance to SPS.
AOTS Chairman Malik Ihlaq Ahmad said this international conference would enhance the country's image in the eyes of global players and put a positive impact on the economy as this would enable Pakistani experts to have knowledge of methodologies being practised by the developed world.
Meanwhile, Japanese Ambassador Seiji Kojima also called on CM Punjab at Chief Minister House and discussed bilateral relations, matter of mutual interests and prospects of co-operation in trade and economic sectors.