KARACHI: Pakistan Navy (PN) on Thursday held its 2nd “PN-Industrial Seminar” at Pakistan Navy Engineering College, Karachi. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi was the chief guest on the occasion.
While addressing the seminar, Admiral Abbasi lauded the representatives of various industries from the private sector for participating in the event. The naval chief highlighted that the seminar was indeed beneficial to formulate a way forward to further enhance the role of the private sector regarding fulfilling the technological requirements of Pakistan Navy.
He further said that the global scenario in general and regional geo-political situation in particular warranted concrete and long-term policy decisions for achieving self-reliance on many fronts. While announcing the establishment of a shipyard in Gwadar, he said that work on the project would commence shortly and would be completed in three to five years.
“Technical know-how and basic industrial infrastructure to support research and development was available in the country. However, it is time to integrate and optimise these facilities with a view to further strengthen the process of self-reliance” he added.
The naval chief further emphasised to increase the number of ports in the country to cater to future requirements and maritime challenges. He said that Pakistan Navy was the custodian of blue economy and maritime awareness was the need of the hour in the context of contemporary maritime affairs.
He also said that through meaningful engagement of the private sector and in the presence of a well-articulated strategy, Pakistan would attain complete self-reliance through untiring efforts. He further said that in the present era of globalisation and technological innovation, we needed to join hands and create collaborations/partnerships that could add value to our national economy and strengthen our national defence. He appreciated the response of the private sector which showed a resolve to work under technologically challenging environment and time constraints.
A number of speakers from the private industry and academia threw light on the topic of academia-industry linkages and called for bridging the gap between PN and the local industry to further the process of indigenisation of technology. They emphasised upon further enhancing the contributions of the private industrial sector in supporting PN and presented a roadmap to realise this objective.
The seminar was attended by a large number of PN officers, representatives of local industries and prominent members of the academia.
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