INDUSTRY
Knowledge based approach
* Develop own technology
*Private ownership
*Protection where necessary or strategically vital
*Enlist support of universities
*Set up research and technical training institutes
*Ensure adequate investment capital
Focus on maximum capture of ‘value chain’. In the modern world industry is synonymous with power, wealth and influence. It is imperative that Pakistan be an industrial power Mustaqbil will seek to develop indigenous capability. Industry is not just buildings and machines. Above all it is knowledge.
We will develop the knowledge to design and build machines, and to develop and license our own industrial processes. We will break away from our reliance on foreign technology and machinery. Only then can we claim we have made progress.
It is not progress to import 100% of your textile machinery, and then claim that you have a textile industry. The same applies to all other industries. Being an industrial power means developing and owning the knowledge to build the machinery and processes used in factories and plants.
COMPONENTS
The factors we will consider in developing an industrial policy include the following:
· Knowledge and expertise – do we have it?
· Capital – sources and availability
· Target markets – local or export
· Resources – available locally or imported
· Strategic considerations – vital to sovereignty or not
· Fit with overall national economic policy:
– Raising standards of living
– Lowering unemployment
– Meeting domestic needs
· Trade related aspects
– Protection from dumping
– Need for trade barriers
KEY FEATURES
We believe that the government should not own and operate industry. Its role is to guide, coordinate, allocate, assist, and enable. Accordingly, we will empower the Ministry of Industry to take a much more active role in developing and directing a coherent integrated industrial strategy.
We will have no hesitation in shielding our nascent industries from external competition whenever we deem this to be necessary. Given that agriculture is Pakistan’s economic backbone; we will seek especially to develop industries that add value to agricultural produce. Industry is above all dependent on know-how. Hence we will insist on close collaboration between academia and industry. To this end we will allocate resources, as necessary, to develop R&D capabilities at our technical and engineering universities.
We will seek to capture as much of the ‘value chain’ in manufacturing within the country. This means, in general, that the starting point of all industries should be basic raw materials preferably from local sources. And the end point should be intermediate or finished goods or products to which further value addition is not possible or desirable for economic or strategic reasons.
STRATEGIC INDUSTRIES
TEXTILES
We believe Pakistan’s textile strategy in the past has been simplistic and misguided. This is what we intend:
· Become a world leader in the processing – spinning, weaving and finishing – of cotton.
· Limit severely the export of simple, low value (22 counts) yarn.
· Insist that maximum possible value addition to yarn and fabric takes place before export.
· Develop the indigenous capacity to manufacture all required textile machinery locally. Leading eventually to the complete phase out of imported textile machinery
· Amalgamate all existing cotton and textile research institutes – whether in the public or private sector – into a single public sector entity. This entity will be tasked with providing comprehensive support to the textile industry. It will conduct leading edge research on all aspects of the textile chain – starting from cotton growing, ginning, spinning etc until finishing and marketing.
STEEL, NON FERROUS METALS
The ability to manufacture, process, form, mold, draw, shape and weld metals remains the key to industrial power. To this end we do not believe that the way forward is to continue to sustain and develop legacy projects based on ancient technology and imported raw materials such as the Steel Mills complex in Karachi. The way forward is to develop several, relatively smaller, steel plants based on locally available raw material and innovative technology.
We will seek to encourage the development of high performance, value added steel alloys needed to support special industrial and defence related applications. Similarly we will seek to develop indigenous capacity in the mining and manufacture of other non ferrous industrial metals.
We will seek to encourage the development of high performance, value added steel alloys needed to support special industrial and defence related applications. Similarly we will seek to develop indigenous capacity in the mining and manufacture of other non ferrous industrial metals.
TRANSPORT
This includes the manufacture of cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, railway locomotives and carriages, and aircraft.
· Cars: In line with our overall transport strategy which focuses on mass transit, Mustaqbil does not deem investment in the manufacture of cars to be a priority. Accordingly, we will require the industry to consolidate and to reduce its dependence on the import of parts and components. Specifically, we will require that all automobile parts and components be made locally within a period of three years from our taking office.
· Trucks and Buses: This is an area to which we intend to attach a high priority. Buses form an integral part of our transport strategy. And trucks are critical to national development.
We find it unacceptable that such equipment is still, in large part, imported. The following measures will be taken:
· The import of finished trucks and buses will be banned with immediate effect
· Import of parts and components will be subject to gradual ‘deletion’ over a period of 3 to 5 years
· A complete ban on the import of engines and transmissions and related parts will go into effect in 5 years from taking office.
In order to support the introduction of locally manufactured engines and transmissions within the 5 year time frame, the Government will provide R&D support to companies and engineering universities. Such support will be used to design and build bus and truck sub-systems from purely indigenous technology and materials.
· Railway locomotives and carriages: Pakistan Railways does have some experience and facilities in building carriages. We intend to use this capability as a core on which to build a much broader entity tasked with developing and building locomotives as well as carriages.
It is vital, in line with Mustaqbil’s transport policy, that Pakistan be able to build railway locomotives with indigenous materials and technology. We believe the nature of the market for locomotives will mean that this manufacturing will have to take place in the framework of a Government owned entity.
Mustaqbil envisions involving academia in R&D support both in enabling technologies and in manufacturing processes to support this vital effort.
· Aerospace: Such capability as exists today is limited to rockets and ballistic missile systems in the defence establishment. Mustaqbil will seek of course to enhance this capability in line with our Defence Policy. But we will seek further to develop capabilities in aircraft design and manufacture for both civilian and military uses.
This is clearly a very ambitious objective and cannot be achieved in the context of a single country. This is due to the heavy investments involved and market considerations. It seems to us that the way to approach this is through a pan Islamic effort. A Mustaqbil led government will make it a high priority to contact interested countries to forge such a project.
We will also make it a high priority to build on existing ballistic missile technology to develop space launch vehicles that can take a commercial payload to geostationary earth orbit.