Strong academic-industrial collaboration stressed

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a conference on Wednesday stressed the need for strong academic-industrial collaboration along with preparedness at all levels through China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) beyond infrastructure and power generation projects.

The recommendations were made at the concluding session of the First International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Management Applications (IEMA-2017). It was jointly organised by the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar and Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), Jamshoro, Sindh. Higher Education Commission, Islamabad offered the financial assistance.

The speakers asked the local manufacturing industries to set process parameters to ensure competitiveness and sustainability. They said it was only possible if university-industry linkages were strengthened and industry directly started mentoring the fresh graduates on entrepreneurship skills.

Shunaid Qureshi, managing director of Al-Abbas Group of Companies, Pakistan said curriculum of industrial engineering had to be on a par with industrial needs. He assured cooperation for industrial growth in the country.

Prof. Dr. Aslam Uqali, MUET vice-chancellor, said universities needed to get on one platform to highlight such issues of critical importance through relevant departments. He said such conferences should be held regularly with the active participation of the industry.

Prof Dr Iftikhar Hussain, Department of Industrial Engineering of UET, Peshawar, said that contribution of the manufacturing sector in Gross Domestic Product was very low due to non-visible incentives and import driven inward policy which paid attention at macro level only. He said incentives-based policy should be introduced at the micro level.