Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A delegation of Institute of Environmental Sciences & Engineering (IESE) of National University of Science & Technology (NUST) led by Dr Yousaf Jamal visited the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and showed its readiness to work with local industry for developing optimum solutions of its various problems.

Dr Anwar Baig, Dr Sher Jamal, Dr Fahim Khokhar, Dr Muhammad Arshad and Dr Salahuddin Azad were in the delegation.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr Yousaf and other members of NUST delegation said that IESE has the capacity to develop treatment plants and solutions of various problems of industry. He said that steel, marble, flour and other industries were generating a lot of waste material that could be recycled and utilised for developing by-products.

He said universities were engaged in various research and development activities, however, due to lack of industry-academia linkages, the industry could not take benefit from the R&D efforts of universities for its better development and growth. He said industry should come forward and share its problems so that IESE could work to find out their optimum solutions.

It was discussed that flour mills needed a lot of water for its manufacturing activities and IESE would work with some local flour mills to minimise their water needs and to recycle their used water for further usage. Both sides resolved that they would develop close liaison to facilitate industrial development in the region.

ICCI President Sheikh Amir Waheed said that developing strong industry-academia linkages was the need of the hour for sustainable economic growth of the country. He said developed countries achieved fast growth by developing strong industry-academia linkages, but Pakistan was way behind in these efforts.

He said universities were producing good R&D work that was being published at international level, however due to lack of coordination, industry and academia could not achieve mutually beneficial results as yet. He said Europe and the West were the major destinations for Pakistan’s exports, but these countries were now pressing for strict compliance of standards and certifications.

He said if local industry showed slackness in compliance of international standards, it would lose exports in international markets.

He said that for ensuring sustainable joint ventures and partnerships with Chinese counterparts, our local industry needed to adopt best business practices and upgrade technology and machinery. He said academia could cooperate with industry in realising these objectives.

ICCI Senior Vice President Muhammad Naveed thanked the NUST delegation for visiting the chamber and hoped that strong collaboration between ICCI and NUST would lead to resolving key issues of the local industry. The representatives of various local industries shared their problems with the academia and said they were ready to work with universities for resolving the highlighted issues.

Published in Daily Times, March 18^th 2018.