PCJCCI pledges to spur pace of technological advancement

LAHORE: Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) President Shah Faisal Afridi has pledged to spur the pace of technological advancement in Pakistan through Chinese cooperation, a statement said on Tuesday.
Addressing a meeting of the PCJCCI members, he said that the technological advancement for human resource development was the prime agenda of PCJCCI, for which the chamber was endeavouring to establish a Pak-China Technology University.
The project is to be initiated with the Chinese collaboration and the purpose of this project would be primarily the transfer of redundant technology from China that is no more in use in China, but suits to the needs and requirement of Pakistani Industrial trends, he said.
PCJCCI has planned to establish state-of-the-art Chinese construction material centre that would be executed in two phases; first phase involves formation of display centre and the second phase involves the transfer of production facility from China to Pakistan, he said.
He was confident that the project would revolutionise the construction industry of Pakistan with exquisite and latest construction trends.
Afridi said that the acquisition of appropriate technology from China in the field of renewable energy and alternative sources of energy such as solar, nano technology ,wind power, Run of the river power plants, etc, was also included on the priority agenda of PCJCCI.
The business conglomerates of China have shown their keen interest in establishing power plants in Pakistan due to an impressive campaign lodged by PCJCCI, he said.
The government has to formulate policies for creating linkages between industry and academia so as to create industry-driven batches of students, he said, and suggested equipping secondary school and university graduates with employable skills that require a shift from academically-oriented learning to demand-driven courses relevant to the industry needs.
Currently, Tevta enrolls on an average 110,000-120,000 students in its technical training institutes, while the demand in the market is over one million; government of Pakistan needs to invest in skilled workers to bridge the imbalances that occur due to inadequacy in human resource development, he added.