April 18, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 1427

ISLAMABAD, April 17: The government plans to shortly introduce the state-of-the-art technology for improving the quality of the Pakistani products for export through setting up of technology parks and technology incubators in Karachi.

Official sources told Dawn on Monday that under a well thought-out plan, two separate companies — Development Company (DC) and the Management Company (MC) - will be established to assist the business community to help develop their enterprise management plans to enhance exports by improving their products.

Currently, there is no single place in Pakistan where internationally acceptable analysis for export items can be done under one roof. These quality inspections are now said to be mandatory for export of fruits, vegetable, processed food and leather garments.

Now this job will be carried out by the proposed technology parks and technology incubators through the help of the Industrial Analytical Centre (IAC) which is currently offering consultancy services for pharmaceutical products, chemicals, industrial materials and products, food and agriculture, herbal products and environmental samples.

The government would initially provide Rs200 million to help establish technology parks and technology incubators where the marketing management activities have been planned to promote research and development. The functions of the development company (DC) will cover the technology interface, technology transfer, the incubation and the match-making, while the management company (MC) would take care of the administration of the parks and the animation towards the tenants.

The DC and MC will be staffed with high-level business professionals who will run them at par with other similar foreign organisations.

The proposed Incubation Company will function through a “Pre-Industrial Development” area of 20 acres. The land will be equipped with the necessary world-class infrastructure i.e. roads, sewerage, water, gas, electricity, and telecommunications. A Multi-Pre Industrial Plant (MuPIP) will be erected within the required place to incubate approximately 5 start-ups for a 3-year period. It will host the development company and the management company.

During initial reviews of the programme, nine different projects have been identified which will be grouped into five categories.

The proposed programme will also help grab opportunities for the marketing of non-alcoholic perfumes and pilgrims oil whose demand is increasing in the Muslim World. The combination of an expanding market and substitution of alcoholic perfumes by non -alcoholic ones offer large opportunities.

The objective is also to provide internationally accepted essential oil for food industry and cater to the increasing demand for natural products which act as substitution of synthetic products.

The proposed technology parks and technology incubators will provide world-class analytical services to the industries. They will also offer export certification and other related services to the industries in Pakistan. Industries will be helped to develop new products based on indigenous raw material for global and domestic markets and to train the relevant industries in quality control and export-based analysis.

The objective is also to help develop a broad-range of high quality nutritional products to be locally produced in cooperation with the country’s food industry.

The main focus will be placed on the marketing expertise by helping the start-up companies to go to the market to sell their products and their services. In this regard, sources said, all kinds of scientific, business and commercial expertise will be provided to the business community.