National quality policy forum: Export-driven industrial sector, the future says minister

Experts highlight the need for Pakistan to improve its quality standards.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan has prepared a strategy aiming to develop a fast-growing, internationally competitive and export-driven industrial sector. This will help reduce poverty through the provision of adequate employment opportunities to the growing labour force.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Changez Khan Jamali said this during the inaugural session of the National Quality Policy Forum (NQF) at a hotel here on Friday. The event was organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology in collaboration with the European Union-funded Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA II) programme.

Ikhlaq Ahmad Tarar, secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that technical regulations in food safety and agricultural health standards are major sources of concern for many developing countries. “This forum is held in with the objectives to consider the role and benefits of quality infrastructure in the socioeconomic development of Pakistan and to look into the services offered by basic infrastructure institutions,” he said.

“Such steps will help provide more access for Pakistani products to the global market. In the context of the European Union (EU), [the step will] encourage trade with Pakistan,” he added.

Martin Kellermann, an expert on quality infrastructure, presented an in-depth overview of the current scenarios in Malaysia, Vietnam, Turkey and Pakistan.

Kellermann said Pakistan has to go through radical changes in quality infrastructure to meet World Trade Organisation and European Union standards, “and this change should be as soon as possible to move at a par with the international trade picture.”

TRTA II Officer in Charge Ali Abbas Qazilbash said that other governments are pursuing good governance in order to better integrate with the international community and establish policy frameworks conducive to social, ecological and economic development. “Efficient, quality infrastructure together with an effective technical regulation framework can promote the rule of law to help alleviate poverty,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2012.