FAISALABAD: Rear Admiral Azhar Mahmood SI (M) Commander Central Punjab and Commandant of the Pakistan Naval War College Lahore visited Faisalabad and discussed chances of bilateral cooperation between Pakistan Navy and Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI).
He had a meeting with Dr. Khurram Tariq, President FCCI on diverse issues and briefed him about the Naval War College Lahore. He said that it organizes a two week long national security workshop every year in December which is participated by academia, senators and parliamentarians in addition to the business community.
“The ultimate objective of this workshop is to highlight the importance of maritime in our overall economy”, he said and invited Dr. Khurram Tariq to participate in the upcoming workshop in addition to delivering a lecture on relevant topics. He said that this workshop would play a key role in bridging the gap between navy and business community.
He said that generally state-owned-entities are making losses but Karachi Shipyard and Pakistan Naval Shipping Corporation are earning profit for the last two decades. About War College, he said that 40% of its students belong to different countries which are a pride for Pakistan.
Dr. Khurram Tariq underlined the economic importance of maritime trade and said that he had direct relations with the Pakistan navy during floods of last year. He thanked the admiral for inviting him to the National Security Workshop and said that Pakistan has an 1100 kilometers long coastal belt which could be used for economic gains. He said that we can cultivate palm plants to save foreign exchange of $4bn to 5bn currently being spent on the import of palm oil.
He also stressed the need to upgrade the fishing system in Pakistan as our sea has abundance of unique species of fishes. About Faisalabad, he said that it has one of the largest industrial estates but only 20% of it was colonized so far. He also mentioned his slogan that worker’s children should not be a worker and said that he has adopted all workers welfare schools in Faisalabad to provide quality education to the children of workers.
He said that Akhuwat and TNF had established the first boarding school in Faisalabad while he had launched a project under the title of Cyberabad to promote IT and AI. He said that the current IT ecosystem has some inherent flaws including lack of quality training and deficient and irrelevant syllabus. He was optimistic that FCCI would play a key role in overcoming these discrepancies.
He said that in the second phase of this project, the business community would be involved so that they could exploit AI to upgrade their existing industrial units in addition to establishing their own IT houses. He said that Pakistan is producing ample of raw material and its value addition is possible with direct involvement of industrialists as the skilled IT workers could not have enough finances to establish their own AI companies.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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