Pakistan has immense potential in construction industry particularly w.r.t low cost housing

[LRE]

Pakistan has immense potential in construction industry

KARACHI, Aug 4 (APP): The Sindh government has embarked upon a programme of construction of low cost housing scheme in the province for which a sum of Rs two billion has been earmarked in the current budget.

This was stated by Sindh Minister for Revenue, Syed Murad Ali Shah.

He was speaking at the First International Conference on Construction in Developing Countries here on Monday.

The conference has been organised by the NED University of Engineering and Technology Karachi in collaboration with USAID, National Academy of Sciences, Higher Education Commission and International University of Florida.

Murad Ali Shah said Pakistan has immense potential of construction but the construction industry has not been developed as a result of which at times we import technical personnel from Gulf and other regions for the construction purpose.

He further stated the Sindh Government has embarked upon a programme of construction of low cost housing scheme in the province for which in the current budget a sum of Rs two billion has been earmarked.

In this endeavour, Murad Ali Shah said, the Sindh Government will welcome academicians, experts, ideas to complete the programme and provide good quality, low cost houses to the poor people.

He said the Sindh Government will subsidise the construction sector.

The Minister also referred to the problem of non- availability of human resources and said the universities and private sector can help Sindh Government in establishing vocational training institutes/ centres where youth could be provided training towards the development of the construction industry.

He said it is very important that in view of construction of small dams by Sindh Government we must have talent available with us and in this endeavour he called upon the NED University’s Civil Engineering Department and other concerned to help overcome this talent and personnel shortage problem. We have immense opportunities for youth, he said.

Referring to huge deposits of coal and of pink granite in Thar region, the Minister said we have second highest reserves of coal in the world but even after 17 years we have still not been able to yield any benefit although eight blocks have been identified and each block can produce 1000 MGW of electricity. This is another area where private sector participation will be helpful.

Earlier Chairman Civil Engineering Department NED University Prof. Sarosh H. Lodhi and other speakers Dr. Mahmood Ahmed, Dr. Sahibzada F.A. Rafeeqi in their speeches said this conference has been organised to give boost to education in construction industry with a view to sustain development and capacity building of Human Resources in Pakistan.

They further said NED University Civil Engineering Department in collaboration with International University of Florida has through Pak-US Joint Research Science and Technology Programme jointly undertaken a programme “Development of Strategic Model for Advancing and Integrating Construction, Education, Research, Management Practice in Pakistan.” This 3- year programme, they said, will end by December 2008, with a funding of more than US 400,000 dollars.

This two-day conference is being attended by delegates from Hong Kong, Lebanon, Malaysia, Kenya, Nigeria and from USA.

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