February 24, 2006	Friday	Muharram 25, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Engineering Development Board (EDB) Imtiaz A. Rastgar on Thursday said the industry was facing a severe shortage of skilled labour. He said some units were seriously considering of importing it.

He was briefing a three-member delegation of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Project Formulation Mission about industrial development in the country and progress made in different sectors especially auto and manufacturing.

During the meeting ways and means to increase cooperation between the two countries especially in technical education and vocational training sectors were discussed.

He said that Japanese government could help the Pakistani industry by establishing training centres in the country.

The CEO of EDB said that the private sector was establishing factory school adjacent to a manufacturing unit in Hassanabdal to train students in three basic fields. The same experiment, if found successful, will be repeated in other areas, he added.

Imtiaz Rastgar also introduced various organizations working under the Ministry of Industries, Production and Special Initiatives and different industrial clusters situated at Gujrat, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sialkot and Faisalabad.

He invited the team to visit these industries to assess the needs of different sectors. Rastgar offered to facilitate the visit of the team to these places. He also highlighted the weakness and strength of these clusters.

The mission is visiting Pakistan to study the industrial environment and examine the restructuring strategy.

Briefing about Automotive Testing Training Centre (AT&TC) Mr Rastgar said that Japanese government had already agreed to finance up-gradation of the Centre. But details regarding Japanese grant was still under process by Japanese government.

This delay is seriously affecting the operations of the Centre, he added. The Centre was very much needed to introduce safety standard in the country for auto sector, he said.

Ajmal Sharif, Dy General Manager EDB, S.Z.A Jaffery,Chief coordinator, Skill Development Council, and Asif Farid, GM, AT&TC also attended the meeting.