KARACHI, Jan 8: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday urged the workers to obtain new skills to keep themselves updated with changing technologies so that they could improve their life standard and the country progress economically.

They were speaking at the seminar on education and training for human resources and economic development of the country. The seminar was organised by the Pakistan Workers Training and Education Trust (PWTET).

State Bank governor Ishrat Hussain said on the occasion that with better training and updated skills productivity of workers would increase, the cost of products would go down and sales would improve, increasing the industrial profit which would translate into better economic conditions for the country and its citizens.

He said that due to the process of globalisation soon all countries would be competing to sell their goods and would be trying to capture as many markets as possible, so the workers and the industrialists here should also be ready to face that enormous challenge.

He said that era of confrontation between employees and employers and forcing the former towards agitation had ended and now workers and managements would have to join hands to face the ensuing great challenge. If they tried to stick to the old ways, both the parties — workers and managements — would lose and eventually the economy of the country would suffer.

He urged workers to work with honesty, sincerity and to the best of their ability, and at the same time he advised employers to pay better wages to their employees.

Stressing the need for education for all, he said that at preset the literacy rate in the country was around 35 per cent. And in comparison with it, an equally poor country in the region, Sri Lanka’s had over 95 per cent literacy rate.

Giving examples of Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, he said that the economies of those countries boomed as the workers and the managements did not resort to confrontation and solved their issues through negotiations and understanding.

Earlier, other speakers said that the time had come when trade unions would have to expand their area of working, join hands with employers and arrange training and skill development for their members.

They said that the PWTET was starting a year-long training programme under which six trainings — each of a different duration — would be organised to incorporate the Islamic point of view into the industrial relations.

They urged educated and technically qualified people to join trade unions as with their assistance the movement would progress.

They said that till now the union membership had comprised mostly of uneducated people due to which the movement had suffered.

Prof Shafi Malik, Ehsanullah Khan, Hakim Ali Shah Bokhari, Syed Gulzar Ali Shah, Mohammad Sharif, Haq Nawaz akhtar, Zahid Askari, Shaukat Ali, Saeed Ghani, Maj Zubauri and others also spoke in the occasion.