European Union (EU)/Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) Programme supports Pakistani Laboratories for Business Planning. The TRTA II Programme is a project funded by the EU, which aims at strengthening the capacity of Pakistan to participate in international trade. The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) manages the overall programme implementation.
Pakistani laboratories face challenges in terms of sustaining their testing and calibration services by generating adequate incomes covering their cost of operations. Laboratories need to identify their potential markets, assess their services by establishing proper pricing of fees and operate business practices that suite their clients. Such businesslike approach to laboratory services requires proper business planning.
The training workshop was envisaged to provide participants with an insight on the rationale for developing business plans for laboratories both in terms of value and effectiveness. The workshop not only described what a laboratory business plan was, but also defined business planning in terms of its implementation as well as how to use it as a management tool.
A business plan development template, comprising several sections, was discussed and information gathered and compiled by the participants on the template was used in developing model business plans for their respective laboratories during the course of the Workshop. The training workshop is a series of three 2-day trainings held from March 15-22, 2011 in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.-PR