'Light engineering sector of Multan is facing manifold hardships that are being redressed by the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).' The President, MCCI, Anis Ahmed sheikh said while presiding over a meeting of Cluster Development Centre (CDC) on Sunday. He said that Pakistan imports machinery worth approximately $600 million annually for textiles only.
However, free trade agreements like SAFTA and Pakistan's recent attempt to get included in ASEAN may help increase Pakistani exports to maintain the balance of trade and Pakistan can also use lesser sophisticated African markets. Sheikh expressed his dissatisfaction over the pace of development in the CDC and stressed the need for expediting the project.
He said that Pakistan is facing a threat of competition from countries like India and China, which have more advanced engineering technology base. Lagging in technology, substandard goods are produced that hampers consumers' perception about local engineering products. About Research and Development, he said that non-existence of R&D culture is likely to widen the technology gap more and more with the passage of time.
Further, Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) is the only major institute offering courses relevant to the local foundry and engineering industry of Multan. It is managing nearly 400 different technical, commercial and vocational training institutes throughout the province. There are two important institutes of Tevta, the Government College of Technology (GCT) and Government Apprenticeship Training Centre (GATC) functioning in Multan.
The objectives of this organisation include the provision of up-to-date training facilities to the technical staff and the trainers to improve the efficiency of the available human resources, he stated. The MCCI Chief also said that currently Tevta is striving to upgrade the courses and the training programmes according to the need of the industry. Till date no special financing scheme for the foundry and light engineering sector of Multan has been introduced by any of the banks, he added.
Conventional financing on standard rates is available through all banks. However, the biggest issue in this aspect has been the spread of technology gap between local manufacturers and modern trends. Modern machinery and equipment is too expensive for ordinary entrepreneurs of this sector to be affordable even through bank financing, Mian Iqbal Hassan, Mian Mughis Ahmed Shaikh , Saeed Anwar Malik and Syed Sibtain Raza Gilani said.
They said that no 'private business development service providers', are operating in the region with specific reference to foundry and light engineering industry.
Further, workflow differs with regard to products and are primarily divided into two categories ie fabrication and casting, bout most of the units are only involved in casting related products, as it is directly related to traditional foundry set ups prevailing in the cluster. Moreover, fabricated products normally include complete machinery set up, which only bigger units can afford, they added.