05 December 2004	Sunday	22 Shawwal 1425

LAHORE, Dec 4: Pakistan Steel Mills chairman Lt-Gen Abdul Qayyum (retired) has said efforts were being made for boosting the productions of the mills and improvement in the quality of its products.

Inaugurating the annual national seminar on engineering materials at the Pakistan Institute of Metallurgical and Materials Engineers at the Punjab University here on Saturday with Prof Dr Javed Ahmad in the chair, the chairman said a British team had already arrived in the country for suggesting ways and means for improvement in the efficiency of the mills for increasing production. The team had completed the inspection of the mills and was formulating its recommendations.

He said efforts were also being made for improvements in the blast furnace of the mills. A new convertor was also being added to increase production. The mills research institute was also being revived for ensuring proper control over the quality of products. The institute had been closed down a long time ago.

Gen Qayyum said the mills had not only paid back all its loans but had started earning profit. The mills was paying a tax of Rs10 million after every 36 hours after become profitable.

He said economic growth of a country depended on industrial growth which required professional engineers and skilled technicians. Countries like Japan, Korea and Singapore had made tremendous industrial growth despite energy constraints because of technological advancement whereas Sudan, Nigeria and Congo had failed to progress despite their rich oil and mineral deposits due to low literacy rate.

The chairman said Pakistan had 4,000 sick industrial units because of lack of vision and non-professional approach of the investors. A sizable number of units existed only on paper because the owners secured loans to get it written off later using their influence. Many units belonging to genuine investors had fallen sick because they had made wrong investments due to lack of proper knowledge.

Dr Farid A. Malik of the National Science Foundation stressed the need for industry-university interaction for the development of engineering materials.

He said there was no dearth of technological knowledge in the country but it was not reaching the industry from the universities for application due to a communication gap between the two.

Dr Malik said the National Science Foundation had revived the Shinkiari Tea Project abandoned five years ago in cooperation with the leading national tea marketing company. The prime minister of Azad Kashmir had agreed to start leasing out 1,000 acre hill tracts to the company for growing tea by February next. Survey for the selection of suitable tracts was already in progress, he added.

He said the company would start growing green tea first and black tea later on. It would also install its own tea processing plant and the country was expected to be self-sufficient in tea production within 10 years. The country was importing tea worth Rs14 billion per annum at present. The import bill was the largest after the POL products import.

He said the science foundation had arranged distribution of solar dryers in Northern Areas to dry apricot for export. The firs dryer had already been installed in the area.

He said 45,000 tons of apricot was being grown in Gilgit and Hunza every year but only 500 tons was being exported at present. The foundation planned to raise the export to 5,000 tons by arranging installation of solar dryers.

Dr Malik said the foundation also planned installation of an upcountry steel mills based on indigenous raw materials. The Chinese were producing 20,000 tons to 22,000 tons of copper annually from Saindak whereas Pakistanis had failed to start producing even 15,000 tons annually from August 1995 due to mismanagement.

Dr Javed Iqbal said sarcastically that the informal sector was growing by 8 per cent to 9 per cent per annum because 34 government agencies specializing in obstructing the industrial growth could not reach it. The growth of formal sector ranged between 2 and 3 per cent due to undue interference by government agencies and departments.

Dr Shahzad Alam said the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research was establishing the Pakistan Institute of Technology and a foundry school at Gujranwala.

Pakistan Institute of Metallurgy and Material Engineers president Prof Dr M. Salim Shuja stressed the need for developing a liaison between the university teachers and the industry so that it could utilize their knowledge for the improvement in the quality of its products.

He said the liaison was necessary because the teachers could not use their knowledge for commercial purposes and those engaged in production of goods lacked advanced technological knowledge.

Dr S. E. Benjamin spoke on 'Recovery of nickel and copper from waste solutions,' Dr Shahzad Alam read his paper on 'Future trends in thermal spray technology' and Dr Khalid Mahmood Ghauri spoke on 'Engineering and materials.