ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry in collaboration with Skill Development Council, Islamabad organized a workshop on “Cost Reduction & Profit Maximization” for the education of local industry how to improve its competitiveness and enhance productivity. Mian Akram Farid Chairman Skills Development Council, Saqib Mahi ud Din Advisor Skills Development Council, Hassan Haider CEO Asian Institute of Competitiveness, Rafat Farid Senior Vice President, Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President ICCI and the local business community attended the event.
In his welcome remarks, Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that many special economic zones would be setup in Pakistan under CPEC and stressed that the government should allow duty free import of technology and machinery to the local industry so that it could upgrade itself and compete effectively with Chinese counterparts for producing value added products. He assured that ICCI would continue to organize such workshops in cooperation with SDC for the benefit of local industrial sector.
Mian Akram Farid, Chairman Skills Development Council (SDC) highlighted the key initiatives of his organization to produce skilled manpower. He said SDC has provided training to 32000 persons including males/females and stressed that local industry should engage these trained workers to enhance its productivity. He said SDC was contributing towards the economic empowerment of women as its trained females were earning Rs.50,000 to Rs.60,000 per month by producing mosaic works on marble products at home. He said focus on human resource development and skilled manpower was the way forward for Pakistan.
Saqib Mah ud Din, Advisor, SDC said that Pakistan has failed to develop skilled manpower due to which it could not grow up to its real potential. He said the global competition was main challenge for the local industry and it should focus on Balanced Scorecard (BSC), which was latest management tool and proactive approach to improve competitiveness, reduce cost, enhance productivity and maximize profitability. He said that only 3 percent SMEs in Pakistan had grown into national and multinational companies compared to 12 percent in India and 18 percent in many other countries. He said new platforms of innovation were needed for the local industry to flourish. He urged that the government should focus on local industry for procurement that would accelerate its growth.
Hassan Haider, CEO Asian Institute of Competitiveness gave a detailed presentation on the tools of cost reduction and profit maximization and provided key tips to the local industry for improving its competitiveness and productivity.
