ISLAMABAD, March 17: A Japanese researcher Yasuhiko Shinagawa has proposed establishment of exclusive organisation for development of auto sector in Pakistan. He was speaking in a seminar arranged by Engineering Development Board (EDB) in collaboration with JICA here on Saturday. Mr Shinagawa is a senior researcher at Japan Development Company Service Ltd and member of JICA Mission.

He underlined the need of coordinated efforts by the government and private sector for achieving the target of 0.5 million cars in next five years. “The government has to improve infrastructure including roads for doubling the number of car manufacturing in the country,” he added.

This will also depend on increasing income of the people with better taxation system and improvement in inspection procedures, he said.

Referring to his visit to 20 vendors set-up in the country, he pinpointed their weaknesses in human resource, technology and quality control. He suggested joint ventures to vendor industry for quick technology transfer rather than making efforts for acquiring technology that was time consuming.

Takashi Matsuo, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Tokyo Metropolitan University also spoke on “Auto Sector Comparison on Integral Type Manufacturing and Modular Type Manufacturing”.

JICA resident representative Takao Kaibara said main objective of the seminar was to see whether Pakistani businesses were competing with foreign markets or locally with foreign firms. Due to increasing competition the firms were thinking more internationally than the past, he added.

The seminar was in fact the follow-up of JICA study on “Towards a Vision 2030": Direction of Industrial Development in Pakistan,” which analysed the role of auto industry in developing into one of the engines of the entire economy in Pakistan.