‘Pakistan short on construction expertise’

[LRE]

‘Pakistan short on construction expertise’

KARACHI: There is immense potential for construction in Pakistan, but the construction industry has not developed, forcing the country to import technical expertise from the Gulf and other regions, said Sindh Revenue Minister Murad Ali Shah.
He stated this while addressing a two-day International Conference titled ‘Construction and Developing Countries’ at a local hotel on Monday. The international conference is being organized by the NED University of Engineering and Technology in collaboration with USAID, National Academy of Sciences, the Higher Education Commission and the International University of Florida.
The minister said that the Sindh government has embarked upon a program of constructing low-cost housing schemes in the province, for which a sum of two billion rupees has been allocated. In this endeavor, he said, the government will welcome academicians, experts and ideas to complete the program and provide good-quality, low-cost houses to the poor. The Sindh government will subsidize the construction sector, he added.
Murad Ali Shah also referred to the problem of the lack of human resource, adding that universities and the private sector should help the government in establishing vocational training institutions where youth can be provided with training in the construction industry. “We must have the expertise available to allow the Sindh government to construct small dams,” he said.
He called upon the Civil Engineering Department of NED University and other departments concerned to help overcome this shortage of skilled personnel. “We have immense opportunities for the youth,” he reiterated.
Referring to the huge deposits of coal and pink granite in the Thar region, the minister said, “We have the second-largest coal reserves in the world, but unfortunately, 17 years have gone by and we have still not been able to benefit from this resource, although eight blocks have been identified and each block can produce 1000 MGW of electricity. This is another area where the participation of the private sector will be helpful, he said.
Earlier, NED University Civil Engineering Department Chairman Prof Sarosh Lodhi and other speakers, including Dr Mahmood Ahmed and Dr Sahibzada F.A. Rafeeqi, said that the conference has been organized to boost education in the construction industry to sustain growth and develop Pakistan’s human resource.
They said that the NED University’s Civil Engineering Department, in collaboration with the International University of Florida, has launched a program through the Pak-US Joint Research Science and Technology Programme titled “Development of a strategic model for advancing and integrating construction, education, research and management practice in Pakistan”. This three-year programme, to end by December 2008, has a funding of over 400,000 US dollars.
Delegates from Hong Kong, Lebanon, Malaysia, Kenya, Nigeria and USA are attending the conference. ppi

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