divtext-align: center""Vendors face labour shortage as carmakers eye Pakistan
By Saad Hasan
KARACHI: Automotive parts’ suppliers in Pakistan are facing a dearth of skilled workforce at a time when opportunity to capture lucrative contracts from foreign car assemblers is just around the corner.
Japanese automakers are gearing up to outsource their parts manufacturing from Pakistan, which has recently come under the limelight of their European counterparts. Director of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Shinichiro Ashizawa told The News that carmakers from his home country, other than those already having operations in Pakistan, were interested in expanding business, primarily attracted by increase in annual production of vehicles now nearing 200,000.
Also, recently their European counterparts announced to make roots into Pakistan, which Ashizawa conceded was one of the reasons for renewed Japanese interest in the country. But local vendors deplore that years of neglect on the part of successive governments has weakened the foundations of the vending industry, which is still dependent on old production techniques and has no experience in tools and dies making - the most essential component in vending business.
While Pakistan is facing a lack of trained workmen, Indian automobile industry has grown leaps and bounds over the years and now enjoys a position where the country provides end-to-end services from designing auto parts to production of made-in-India vehicles.
The story of Indian success can be traced back to early 1950s when it opened polytechnic institutes to upgrade labour skills. Four decades later, European auto giants are contracting Indian firms to design and manufacture auto parts.
But now the automobile industry is driven by cost competitiveness unlike previous years when Detroit served as a symbol of pride for United States’ cars, placing Pakistani vendors in a favourable position with their relatively cheap auto parts.
Domestic vending industry is catching up slowly. It has started to concentrate on skill development of workforce and is on its way to train people in making tools, dies and moulds indigenously.
Almas Haider, Chairman Technical Up-gradation and Skill Development Corporation (TUSDEC), Lahore, is optimistic about the future. “Currently, our auto parts are least value-added but as soon as we start producing more refined workforce, impact will start to emerge,” he said.
Local vending industry has expanded in numbers in recent years since the biggest carmaker, Pak Suzuki, established its production plant near Karachi in the 80s. It is using most of the localized products of these vendors and one such part manufacturer has even elevated himself to a higher rank with the launch of first Pakistani car - Revo. Almas, who has been in the vending business for the last 26 years, believes that the local vending industry is one step behind India.
“Such institutes are being set up throughout Pakistan now,” he said referring to Karachi Tools, Dies and Moulds Centre (KTDMC) - a project of the Ministry of Industries. “In two years, these training centres will start to bear fruit.”
He said only a few vendors could afford to import dies and moulds for shaping plastic-made bumpers to steel doors and almost every component of external and internal car structure. Some 30,000 parts make up a car, which can more economically be produced on a large scale with local dies and moulds, he added.
“I have latest machinery in my workshop but I couldn’t find anyone to use them,” Muneer Bana, a vendor who has been assigned the task to head KTDMC said. “A die is a basic foundation for any car part and it should be 100 per cent accurate.”
Most of the vendors in Pakistan use low quality dies, which they are only able to make after several attempts, he said, adding that acquiring a die from abroad is not financially feasible at all.
Local vendors use outdated methods for making dies with little use of computer-based system for designing and manufacture of these dies, which have become a necessity these days, Bana said.
“Government understood the need of training workforce and in the initial stage two such centres are being set up, one in Karachi and the other in Gujranwala,” he said, adding the availability of skilled workforce would encourage him to induct latest die-making machines into business.
Imtiaz Rastgar, CEO Engineering Development Board (EDB), said a lot of businessmen are putting efforts into this initiative aimed at filling the gap, which has emerged over the years between Pakistani vendors and their regional counterparts.
Though demand for cars has increased in Pakistan following the introduction of liberal auto financing schemes brightening the prospects for industry’s further expansion, the yellow-cab controversy of 1991-92 still haunts one car parts’ supplier.
“We need consistency of government policy,” Mehdi Ali Rizvi, Vice Chairman, Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers said, dilating on the outcome of import of yellow-cabs that literally paralysed the auto assemblers and allied industry.
Source : The News
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=19981