Saturday, September 29, 2007
By our correspondent
LAHORE: Chief Executive Officer Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority Shahid Rashid has requested the Japan International Cooperation Agency to provide more experts for a joint programme of SMEDA and JICA aimed at improving efficiency of the auto vendor industry of Pakistan.
He was speaking at a meeting during a visit to a Sheikhupura-based engineering concern, which has recently been treated as the 37th project of the programme.
Kiyoshi Yoshida, a senior Japanese automotive expert, along with a SMEDA team redesigned the layout of rim plant at the factory resulting in 56 per cent improvement in productivity. The SMEDA CEO examined the improvement at the plant as a result of SMEDA-JICA intervention. He requested Yoshida to further strengthen JICA support for the auto industry of Pakistan by providing more experts.
He was of the view that such activities should expand at a much greater pace for having larger impact on the industry. He urged the Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM) to extend cooperation and support to the SMEDA-JICA activity for technical development of the auto vendor industry.
CEO of the engineering company Mushtaq Butt, expressing his views, praised the efforts of SMEDA and JICA for upgrading automotive vendors in terms of quality improvement, productivity improvement and cost reduction.
He said his company was committed to spreading the improvement activity covering all sections of the factory.