PESHAWAR, Aug 9: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has stressed the need for increasing the number of technical and vocational training institutes to reduce the cost of production in the NWFP.

Speaking at a briefing here on Thursday, SCCI president Liaquat Ahmad Khan said that manufacturers were bearing additional cost of brining skilled labour from Punjab and Sindh which increased their overall cost of production.

The session was jointly organised by the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (NVTEC) and the SCCI to apprise the business community and stakeholders

of the draft national skill strategy.

Mr Khan emphasised that the NWFP government should work on increasing the number of technical institutes, design special courses in accordance with the need of the industry, promote between the institutes and industry and create opportunity for the training of women labour.

NVTEC executive director Mohammad Athar Tahir informed the participants that the commission was introducing reforms to make the existing technical education more competitive and market-oriented.

He said the existing syllabus of the technical institutions did not cater to the needs of the industrial sector and making it appropriate was the basic theme of the reforms.

Mr Tahir promised technical and financial assistance to technical institutions.

He asked the management of technical institutions to keep close liaison with the industry so that a market-oriented labour force could be produced.

Technical Education NWFP director Professor Tariq Awan, Haji Mohammad Javed, Haji Mohammad Asif and others also addressed the session.

Earlier, the deputy director of the Technical Education gave a briefing about the national skill strategy.