"Japan's technical support has helped local auto parts manufacturers to get prepared for export market by improving quality and productivity of their products as per world's requirements." Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) General Manager-Central Support Fuad Hashim Rabbani stated this while addressing a ceremony held here to commemorate completion of the 2nd term of Smeda-JICA joint project for technical support of the auto parts manufacturing industry in Pakistan.
Shigeki FURUTA, Chief Representative of JICA attended the ceremony as chief guest while Eina UENO, Project Formulation Advisor of JICA, Yosihiro KANEKI, expert of JICA team, Basharat Javed, vice chairman PAAPAM and Smeda's General Manager, Business & Sector Development Ashfaq Ahmad also spoke on the occasion.
Fuad Hashim congratulated JICA, PAAPAM and Smeda team for completing second term of the four-year project with tangible improvement in productivity and quality of the auto parts production in Pakistan.
He said the auto sector is one of the rapidly growing sectors in Pakistan.
Its contribution towards the national economy in the form of technology transfer, employment and revenue generation is visible, he said and appreciated that local vendors had accepted the challenge of producing auto parts and sub-assemblies complying with the benchmark set by the respective Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
The local auto parts manufacturing industry was lacking competitiveness in terms of quality, cost and flexibility of manufacturing systems, which have now been addressed with the support of JICA, he said.
He was confident that under this project sizeable number of auto parts manufacturers would emerge as role model companies in the field of productivity and quality.
Shigeki FURUTA, Chief Representative of JICA assured to continue the technical support for Pakistan's industry to compete the world market in respect to technical know-how and the modern manufacturing techniques.
He said that to implement Smeda-JICA project for technical support of the auto parts manufacturing industry of Pakistan, a team of five Japanese experts having more than 40 years' experience in Auto industry was brought to Pakistan for a long period up to four years.
He said that productivity of the sector had increased to an optimal level, whereas, the rejection rates to be witnessed in the manufacturing processes had reduced to the lowest possible level.
He said that the SMEs, engaged in auto parts manufacturing, had a great potential to compete the world market and assured to extend the fullest technical support of JICA to impart the best practices being exercised in auto sector of the developed world.
Smeda's General Manager and Incharge Industry Support Cell, Ashfaq Ahmad said that under the project technical assistance have been provided to 52 target suppliers nominated by PAAPAM and various OEMs by the Japanese experts and successfully resolved various issued related to production and quality inefficiencies.
He said that considering eagerness of auto parts manufacturers and implementation status of KAIZEN activities, 17 target suppliers had been selected as model companies as against of 10. It is notable that earlier the fist term of this project was completed in 2017 in Sindh.
PAAPAM Vice Chairman Basharat Javed said that the JICA-Smeda programme has resulted in increasing their productivity and reducing the rejection rates in their manufacturing processes. He urged Smeda and JICA to continue the programme even after completion of the set period.