April 20, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21, 1427

ISLAMABAD, April 19: Imtiaz A. Rastgar, vice-chairman and CEO of the Engineering Development Board, has assured representatives of the industry that the proposals made by the board on the basis of the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP) of South Africa will be circulated to them in order to get their support before submission to the government.

According to a press release here on Wednesday, Mr Rastgar was chairing a meeting of auto, refrigerators and air-conditioners manufacturers, tariff consultants, the CBR, the ministry of industries and production and members of delegations who recently visited South Africa for studding the MIDP.

Zahid Yaqoob, EDB managing director and leader of the delegation, gave a detailed presentation about the MIDP and their findings about the working of the programme in South Africa.

He said the South African authorities were ready to send their master trainers to Pakistan. He said the main objective of the MIDP was to rationalise production into smaller range of products and achieve economics of scale through exports.

In the auto sector, they have gradually reduced tariff on CBU from 65 per cent in 1995 to 32 per cent in the current year. The same had been reduced from 49 per cent to 26 per cent on CKD. Duty free allowance (DFA) was the main instrument of the programme, Mr Yaqoob added.

The meeting decided to meet again on May 2 to finalise its proposals for incorporation in the forthcoming budget.

Meanwhile, two sub-committees on motorcycles and refrigerators and air-conditioners will meet separately with an aim to recommend export incentives in the light of the MIDP.

The meeting also decided to study the development made in auto sectors of Thailand and Turkey by sending the same delegation to these countries in order to recommend which model suits Pakistan.

Magsood A. Basrra of Atlas Honda also made a presentation on findings of his visit to South Africa. He said the programme was successful due to the support of multinational manufacturers and its long duration of 20 years.

Shakeel Ahmed, representative of the refrigerator and AC manufacturers group, also briefed the meeting about his findings of the visit.