ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives, Jahangir Khan Tareen on Thursday directed the Pakistan Industrial Technical Assistance Centre (PTIAC) to gear up their efforts to provide its professional skill in the industrial field.

The minister made these observations while presiding over a meeting on the performance and objectives of the PITAC here on Thursday. The minister was of the view that PITAC can play a vital role in the improvement of the industrial sector by providing best quality of skill to the professionals of the sector.

He stressed the need for doing hard work with dedication and emphasized for early completion of the on-going projects being run by the PITAC with the assistance of JICA, Japan.

Ch Ijaz Rasool, General Manager, PITAC gave a detailed presentation to the minister about the function and activities of the Centre. He informed the minister that the mandate of PITAC was to provide technical backup support services, training for Human Resources Development and Research and Development Activities to provide indigenous solutions for technical problems of the industries.

He also briefed the minister about the status of on-going project of balancing and modernization of workshop facilities at PITAC, Lahore. He said the goal of the projects to enable domestic plastic mould-making industry to design and develop quality moulds for better plastic products in Pakistan. The purpose of the project is to upgrade technical capability of PITAC to extend technical services.

The total cost of the project is Rs454.118 million, in which local cost component is Rs29.442 million while Foreign Exchange Component is Rs424.676 million ($7m). The project is funded by JICA, Japan. The project has been completed and ready for inauguration in near future.

The minister was informed that JICA grant-in-aid project for up-gradation and modernization of PITAC for mental processing and development centre is also in progress for which total cost involves Rs284 million in which local cost component is Rs20 million and Foreign Exchange Component is Rs264 million ($4.2m).

The objective of this project is to enhance PITAC's technological capability and competence in designing and manufacturing. Mr Tareen extended his fullest support and directed the Centre to speed up its efforts in completion of the project.