UNIDO may set up modernising centre

Centre will help Pakistani industry adopt global standards.

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) is considering setting up an industrial modernising centre in Pakistan to bring the industry on a par with international standards.

In a meeting with Federal Secretary Ministry of Industries Aziz Ahmad Bilour, representatives of Unido said UK universities were an entrepreneurship hub with their ‘business facing vision’ and extensive collaboration with the industry.

Dr Jeff Riedman, a scholar from the University of Brighton UK and an expert in international value chain, also attended the meeting.

Stressing the need for enhancing this mutual cooperation in Pakistan, the Unido representatives called for re-activating and re-invigorating the Office for Research, Innovation and Commercialisation (ORIC) in universities.

ORICs were established by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in universities to create a liaison between academic research and industry and to convert research into fruitful growth.

Industries Ministry Secretary Aziz Ahmad Bilour underlined the need for establishing a creative and innovative industry in the country to cope with requirements of a wide variety of customers across the globe. “This is only possible if the public sector, private sector and academia work in collaboration to benefit from each other’s experience and make the academic research more industry-oriented,” he said.

He was of the view that though the industry needed to upgrade its production methods but more importantly it should focus on designing and marketing of the products.

Bilour stressed that the industry should ‘brand’ the indigenous and unique products that they designed to get recognition in the international market.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2012