SUKKUR: Sindh Minister for Industries, Manzoor Hussain Wassan has said that industry and academia must cooperate to exploit natural resources and government was always available for their support.
The Minister expressed these views at a day-long seminar on “Industry-Academia collaboration for advancement of Knowledge and economic development”, organized by the Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Center (PASTIC) under its University-Industry Partnership
(UIP) Program in collaboration with Sukkur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and Sukkur IBA, said a handout here on Monday. He said that Pakistan is naturally gifted country with rich resource and self-reliant agriculture; however we export mostly primary goods and lag far behind in value addition.
“If we established local industry, for example, dates then we can generate huge revenue by setting up value-addition plants,” he added. He also highlighted various initiatives taken by PPP led government in Sindh to revive industry and establish new free economic zones. Manzoor Wassan further said that Pakistan is in severe need of qualified and capable scientists, engineers and research scholars for state of the art research work. Such human resources can help us in innovation and developing ideas that solve everyday problems, the minister said.
He said that present government has top priority to improve quality of life of people of Sindh and has undertaken various initiatives that can produce employment, increase literacy and put Pakistan among prosperous countries of the world.
Director Sukkur IBA, Professor Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) Professor Dr M Ashraf, Director General PASTIC, Dr M. Akram Shaikh and spoke on the occasion.
