Daily Times

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday stressed the need for an enhanced public-private partnership to turn Pakistan’s defence industry into a vibrant, self-reliant and self-sustained entity.

“Apart from public sector and defence production organisations, a fully integrated private sector in our defence industry is much wanting,” the army chief said while addressing a two-day national seminar titled ‘Defence Production-Security through Self Reliance’, held at the Army Auditorium in Rawalpindi. “There is a need to amplify indigenisation through fully integrated public and private organisations in defence production for a meaningful progression in defence of the country,” he added, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). The army chief also thanked the participants for sparing time for an important issue concerning the national security.

Speaking on the occasion, Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industry and Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood enlightened the participants on importance of independent defence industry for the national security.

Minister for Defence Production Zubaida Jalal and Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudary shared their views and suggestions for development of Pakistan’s defence industry into a prolific entity. Representatives from the private sector shared a roadmap for enhancing public-private partnership in the field of defence production. Based on discussion and suggestions discussed during the two-day sessions, the seminar concluded with policy-level recommendations for the government. The major recommendations included establishment of a task force under the prime minister for preparing a roadmap to facilitate the indigenous defence production, establishing raw materials industry, incorporating private sector for raw material base so as to optimally utilize public sector capacity for indigenous defence production, surplus defence potential for export, establishing ‘digital parks’ to tap software industry potential and promoting research and development in universities.

The seminar aimed at paving way for self-reliance by exploring indigenous defence production potential, identifying organisational and institutional challenges of defence industry, pragmatic solutions to optimise defence production and recommending policy-level measures to have fully immersed private sector in defence production.

Members from different ministries, public and private organisations, chambers of commerce and industries, defence production establishments and members from academia participated in the seminar.