SWABI, May 30: NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai has said that the implementation of the World Trade Organisation regime poses a great challenge to developing countries like Pakistan.

Addressing the 11th convocation of the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology on Wednesday, he said: “If we want to remain in the mainstream, we must increase our capacity to diversify our industrial products, improve their quality and keep costs at an internationally competitive level.”

In the present competitive scenario, the role of engineers has become extremely critical. “Pakistan needs a new type of engineers who have the capacity to accept challenges to pursue higher goals, ability to be innovative and professional competence to play the role of a trouble-shooter and problem-solver,” he said.

Mr Aurakzai said the world was changing at a staggering pace, technology was making rapid strides, distances had been reduced and there was a flood of information on the internet.

“The age-old ideas of money and commodity economy have been superseded by concepts of knowledge economy. These developments require a change in our thinking, our attitudes and our ways of working,” he stressed.

“If Pakistan wants to survive as an honourable member of the world community, we will have to keep pace with the rapidly advancing world. We should keep our knowledge continuously updated.”

The governor said that the secret of success in this competitive world lay in acquiring, generating, accumulating, sharing and using knowledge for progress and development.

Dr Abdullah Sadiq, rector of the institute, said that during the late eighties and early nineties, founding fathers of the institute under the leadership of former President Ghulam Ishaq Khan had been able to mobilise enough funds from non-governmental sources to build and equip this campus.