ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: The Senate’s Special Committee (SSC) on “Challenges of WTO” has proposed to bring all committees and task forces, established in various ministries on WTO related matters, under the umbrella of SSC for accelerating and consolidating the efforts to prepare Pakistan for the challenges of WTO regime.

This was noted in a meeting held here on Thursday headed by Privatization and Investment Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

It was agreed that the domestic hindrances and difficulties need to be removed for the progress of the local industry and to change the attitude of various departments to help strengthen and encourage the industry to become compatible in the free global market.

The members were of the view that there was an urgent need to establish outstanding training centres to improve the skills of manpower in all sectors for competing in the WTO regime.

They said the quality of Pakistani products required to be improved on international level and necessary measures were to be formulated to face the challenges of anti-dumping duty for the country’s products.

Earlier, the representatives of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries and the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association gave an overview of the respective sectors and admitted that a lot of work was to be done by the private sector while learning to live in a free market environment.

They said massive investments by the private sector needed to be made productive. It was essential to conduct studies on the impact of accession of China to the WTO, enlargement of the European Union and bilateral agreements between various countries.

The SSC will meet on December 30 to seek the views of the State Engineering Corporation, the Pakistan Engineering Development Board, the Pakistan Automobile Motors Association and the Pharmaceutical Association.—APP