Agriculture experts from China and Pakistan on Friday held a joint seminar on canola cooking oil and its production. A press release issued by the Punjab government on Friday said Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, who was the chief guest, spoke while Chinese First Secretary Lie Aang Lee and Punjab Agriculture Secretary Fayyaz Bashir were the guests.
Shahbaz said in the past eight years nothing had been done for the uplift of agro production and that was the reason that 70 percent agro based country was importing 70 percent cooking oil. He said he hoped that the new government would focus on agriculture, which was the backbone of the economy.
He said promotion of public-private partnership could bring prosperous results, and the Oil Seed Board (OSB) should play an active role in this regard. He said if in spite of all hurdles, our nation can become an atomic power then we can also attain self-sufficiency in agro sector. Hamza Shahbaz appreciated the holding of such seminar to get benefit out of the experience of our brother neighbour countries like China. He lauded the role of Auriga Group of Companies and called upon other private sector to initiate in this regard and take solid steps for increasing agro production in Pakistan.
Earlier, Chief Executive of Auriga Group of Companies Jamshaid Iqbal Cheema in his welcome address said that if the government encourages public private partnership, it would ultimate help in boosting up the agro sector of the country.-PR