WAH CANTT, Nov 9: Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) have been opened for joint ventures, joint training and joint research and development with private sector. “We want to make POF a hub of national industrial activities,” said POF Board Chairman Lt-Gen Syed Sabahat Hussain at the concluding day of the two-day seminar on “Private-Public Sector Partnership”.

Lt-Gen Hussain said at the time of partition in 1947, “we had no industrial base at all. All had to be started from scratch”.

During the last 55 years we have made tremendous progress in every industrial field, and with the passage of time Pakistan has become the only Muslim nuclear power in the world, he said.

While presenting his Vision 2020, Lt-Gen Hussain said public and private sector partnership was the foremost goal of the present management of this premier defence production organisation.

The POF Board chairman said there was no dearth of resources in the country. Our talented experts had excelled in all spheres of life the world over.

He complimented the speakers for presenting thought provoking papers during the seminar.

Earlier, Maj-Gen Zaheer Ahmad Khan, Director-General Military Vehicles, Research and Development Establishment (MVRDE), presented the introduction of his organisation and said MVRDE had been engaged with as many as 20 private companies in connection with the production of various equipment.

Secretary Board of Investment Talat Rasheed Mian presented his paper on “Investment Climate and Opportunities in Pakistan”. He said during the last seven years our macro-economic conditions had been stabilised enormously.

He said as a result of policy reforms, we have succeeded in fast tracking privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation process of various sectors.