By Menahill Rashid
FAISALABAD: Directorate of Indigenous Resources (Ministry of Military Production) is ready to collaborate with Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) to develop a comprehensive and readily available database of different products manufactured locally in order to discourage its imports by Pakistan armed forces, said Brigadier Kamran Adil Director Military Procurement.
During a meeting with Senior Vice President FCCI Chaudhary Talat Mahmood, he said that armed forces have to make imports to meet its requirements by spending huge foreign exchange. He said that under a well-considered policy, the army now prefers indigenization to save precious foreign exchange. He said that our industrial sector was already producing a large number of products which were imported by the army. “We want to develop a database in collaboration with the business community so that the army could make its maximum purchases from the domestic market”, he said and added that due to the lack of information, Pakistan is importing products which are manufactured in Pakistan. He hoped that the Pakistan army could fulfill its 90-95% requirements from the domestic market through this database. He further said that his department could also extend financial assistance to encourage manufacturing of alternate imported products. He also invited FCCI members to visit Islamabad and have close liaison with his department so that indigenization policy could be implemented in its true spirit.
Earlier Chaudhary Talat Mahmood Senior Vice President FCCI appreciated the policies of the Directorate of Military Procurement and said that Faisalabad based industrialists are already manufacturing a variety of products which are used by the Pakistan army. “They have skills to manufacture imported products locally and the army should avail from their potential ‘’, he said and requested Brigadier Kamran Adil to provide FCCI a list of NOCs issued by his directorate during last year for the import of different products. “It will help him to compile a list of industrial units that are already manufacturing these products locally”, he said and added that our industrialists have capacity to manufacture shoes and sleeping bags to be used by the Pakistan army at high altitude. He said that Chenab Engineering and many other organizations are already working with the Pakistan army. He said that although textile is the iconic identity of Faisalabad but now this city has excelled in many other sectors. He assured the Directorate of Defence Production to provide comprehensive and easily accessible data of the manufacturers of various products used by the Pakistan army.
Vice President Ayub Aslam Manj, Engineer Ahmad Hassan, Rana Ikramullah and Khawaja Shahid Razak Sikka were also present during this meeting while Engineer Ahmad Hassan former vice president presented a copy of the second edition of his book “CPEC-Opportunities & Challenges”.
