When asked whether the government would go for privatisation through stock exchanges, he said that the Financial Advisor would give proposals and final decision would be taken in the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation.
To a query about trade with India, he said that liberalisation would not be carried out in a manner, which could harm our own industry. Under Safta, steps would not be taken in a way, which could open gate for flood of imports from India, he said.
To another query, he said that vending industry flourish with development of multinationals. He was of the view that SME could not be developed with out support from the large-scale industry. He said that he himself was leading a delegation to Hanover (Germany) to apprise the multinationals about opportunities available in Pakistan in the engineering sector.
There are thirty plus member of this delegation who would also exhibit their products, he added.
Talking about exports, he said: "We must go for a quantum jump in exports instead of taking small steps. Efforts must be made to double the exports and to achieve this goal every sector was required to play its role but the Engineering sector should be at the forefront".
About the issue of gap in demand and supply of cars, Tareen said that during the financial year ending June 2004, auto loans worth Rs 22 billion were extended, while during first six months of current fiscal, the amount borrowed was of Rs 24 billion.
He said that this jump in the auto loans amount had created the real problem. He said that the government was also aware of the problems being faced by the genuine buyers and would take necessary measures in a month to redress the situation.
Earlier while addressing the workshop, Tareen said that the government would continue to make efforts to increase the share of manufacturing sector in GDP from existing 18-19 percent to 25 percent. He assured the participants of the workshop that the government would do what it could do to strengthen the engineering sector and make Pakistan a real power in engineering sector.
He also threw light on various measures being taken by the government to provide an enabling environment to engineering sector including plan to make Engineering Development Board (EDB) more vibrant, revitalisation of PITAC, setting up of technology and knowledge based incubators, enterprise development fund and technology and skill development company.
Chairman Engineering Development Board (EDB) and former Commerce Minister, Razak Dawood, in his opening address at the workshop called upon the government and private sector to join hands to explore huge potential of the engineering sector following the ways and means adopted by the developed nations to attain economic prosperity.
He stated that it was imperative for Pakistan to explore ways and means for maximising contribution of engineering sector to the economy. Pakistan''s engineering sector exports as percentage of total exports, he said, revolves around a mere 3 percent against Korea''s US $58 billion and Malaysia US $63 billion.
He urged the industrial community to focus on sectoral strategies as an instrument in enhancing the share of engineering sector exports to 15 percent from 3 percent in Pakistan''s total exports. He identified three inextricability-linked areas of capacity for innovation, skills development and productivity enhancement for achieving this goal.
Almas Hyder, chief executive officer, TUSDEC presented the address of welcome on this occasion. Shahab Khawaja, chief executive officer of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda), Sohail P. Ahmad, a renowned industrialist and Zahid Aziz, Chief of the Expert Advisory Cell (EAC) also attended the workshop.