MULTAN, April 26th: Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Vice President Khawaja Muhammad Farooq has said that Pakistan was facing a problem of acute technological obsolescence ,there isd a dire need of a strategy for industrial technology upgradation in Pakistan.He was delivering his speech at a Workshop on "Energy Efficiency, and conservation measures for Industrial Sector jointly organised by Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry(MCCI),Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC) and Punjab Energy Efficiency and conservation agency(PEECA)here today. He said that the vision of the TUSDEC & PEECA was to sensitise the masses to energy efficiency and conservation measures in Punjab by conducting regular awareness programmes under the umbrella of Punjab Energy Department.He further emphasised that the government should reduce duty on import of energy conservation equipment and parts to encourage use of energy-saving solutions and development of the local industry.He said that we can reduce the cost of production by saving energy to compete our neighbouring countries in world market.Khawaja Farooq stressed the need for promotion of energy efficient technologies to tackle the energy challenge. He said that it is need of hour that we should find appropriate solution of energy crisis, especially for commercial sector. He asked experts to share their ideas with industrialists and investors so that they could modify their industrial units and get energy audit of their industries Yasir Ghani of TUSDEC said that Technology up-gradation in developing countries can take them to the next development/time curve. In Pakistan, with abundant human resource, the use of modern techniques and skill development will help ‘jump the curve’ to the further orbits of economic progress. A series of ‘jumps’ to the higher levels through technology up-gradation will close the gap to reach parity with the developed world.Promote and establish Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Centres by establishing common facility, design, support and maintenance, testing, certification, incubation, applied research and dissemination centres,
Rai Azam said that TUSDEC is endeavouring to up-grade and transfer technology in targeted industrial sectors to enhance their productivity and competitiveness in the local as well as global sphere, Advice on technology policy, technology benchmarks, standards and regulations while performing technology specific sectoral mapping, Encourage and promote innovation, creativity and competitiveness ,Create enabling environment for the growth and support of entrepreneurship and Chalking out the critical margins of skill development in the reflection of socio-economic backdrop of a specific geographical area or as an indication of industrial requirement .The experts of energy sector has stressed on adopting proper energy conservation methods and techniques besides developing new avenues of coal, wind and hydro power generation initiatives.This was revealed by Programme Manager Punjab Energy Efficiency& Conservation Agency (PEECA) Ms.Hira Ashraf, Chief Energy Economist Ms.Saadia Qayyum,Programme Managers, Ali Raza Hafeez, Ahmed Faizan, Shah Nawaz Hiraj, Yasir Ghani and Salman Butt of TUSDEC , Khurram Javed Secretary General of MCCI, Suhail Mehmood Haral, Ex-Vice Chairman of PCGA, Mian Iqbal Hassan Ex-President of MCCI.The speakers highlighted the need of constructing buildings smartly – converting to solar solutions and net-metering options – to save cost and resources, which was being successfully done by developed countries. They appreciated the PEECA for organising such a platform where experts and stakeholders could gather to discuss and develop a roadmap to effectively adopt and implement the building codes. Participants from several recognised forums of the related industry and private and government organisations presented their papers and discussed the related topics. An interactive round-table session on Pakistan’s energy scenario and need for energy conservation was also held.Later Mos were signed between the industry and PEECA and Shield were distributed among the guests..
