By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will have its own medical /electromagnetic industry in the next three years and the US will be its biggest client, said Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday.Chaudhry was responding to a tweet by the US embassy which announced the arrival of 100 ventilators in Pakistan.
The minister responded to the tweet by saying that the US gesture of friendships was appreciated and added that Pakistan was exporting sanitizers and PPEs to America.”We are already exporting sanitizers and PPE’s to USA, USA gesture of friendship is appreciated, however in next three years Pak ll have its own big medical/ electromagnetic industry n I have no doubts that USA ll be our major client…” he tweeted.
Last week, the minister had paid tribute to Pakistani engineers and scientists for making the ‘Made in Pakistan’ ventilators. He announced, in a speech at the National Assembly, that the first tranche of the equipment will be made available to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) by Thursday.
Chaudhry had said that Pakistan was initially importing safety gear kits until February 26 but was now making its own. “Today, Pakistan is making safety gear and exports worth $100 million.”
The minister said that the locally-made ventilators cost one-third of their imported counterparts and likewise, the imported kits which are now being locally produced, are quite inexpensive.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said that Pakistan will have its own big medical and electromagnetic industry in the next three years.“And I have no doubts that the United States will be our major client,” he said in a tweet. The federal minister said that, “We are already exporting sanitizers and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the United States”.
Last week, Fawad Chaudhry had appreciated the friendly gesture of the US of providing 100 ventilators to Pakistan while sharing that the country had joined a select list of countries producing their own ventilators.
In a video statement, Fawad Chaudhry had said that the ventilator is a “complicated machine and not a lot of countries in the world have the capacity to make this”.
The minister expressed hope that the country would be able to meet its own need for ventilators and would also be able to export the equipment.
“When the first Covid-19 case was recorded in February 26, we were not producing anything. Within a few months, we have become capable of producing our own equipment,” he said, congratulating the Pakistan Engineering Council, National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), scientists and technicians.
He said the next three designs are also in their final stages, after which Pakistan will be among the few countries in the world that manufacture complex medical machines, in accordance with the European Union (EU) standards.
