Acting president of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Javed Iqbal Chaudhry has said there is a need to launch a National Technical Education Programme to produce skilled labour because it will help meet requirement of our industries as well as cater for the growing need of the Arab and Gulf countries.
He urged the government to set up a policy to promote technical education in the country so that the target to provide employment to one million people in five years could be achieved. He was of the view that one way of attracting foreign investment was to ensure availability of skilled labour in the vicinity of the industrial zones and that could be achieved by introducing technical institutes equipped with modern facilities and a team of professionals to take care of the students.
"Human capital is the key element in promoting the services sector and with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) coming up as a potential economic growth field there is a need to exploit its potential for putting Pakistan's economy on a high-growth trajectory," he stressed.
FPCCI's acting president said that by coming up with right policies to tap the international market worth $4 trillion, the country's economy could be turned around on top of creating millions of jobs as envisioned by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in its manifesto.
Keeping in view the opportunities coming up with the CEPEC, he pointed out, the demand for skilled labour and IT professional would increase manifold and it would be appropriate to fill the requirements from within the country for which we need a chain of vocational training centres in the country.
Chaudhry said that with the better technical training facilities the country would be able to export skilled labour and thereby earn foreign exchange. He said that in short, service sector required better planning to give much desired boost to our human capital.