Islamabad: A delegation of Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE) of National University of Science and Technology (NUST) led by Dr.Yousaf Jamal visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry andshowed readiness to work with local industry for developing optimum solutions of its various problems. Dr. Anwar Baig, Dr. Sher Jamal, Dr. Faheem Khokhar, Dr. Muhammad Arshad and Dr. Salah ud Din Azad were in the delegation.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr. YousafJamal and other members of NUST delegation said that IESE has the capacity to develop treatment plantsand solutions of various problems of industry. He said that steel, marble, flour and other industries were generating lot of waste material that could be recycled and utilized for developing by-products. He said universities were engaged in various R&D activities, however, due to lack of industry-academia linkages, 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 flours mills needed lot of water for its manufacturing activities and IESE would work with some local flour mills to minimize 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.
Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry 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 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 stressed that universities should help industry in meeting the requirements of standards and certifications.
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 & machinery. He said academia could cooperate with industry in realizing these objectives. Muhammad Naveed, Senior Vice President, ICCI thanked the NUST delegation for visiting Chamber and hoped that strong collaboration between ICCI and NUST would lead to resolving key issues of local industry. The representatives of various local industries shared their problems with the academia andsaid they were ready to work with universities for resolving the highlighted issues.
