ISLAMABAD, Jan. 26 (DNA): Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) President Zulfikar Thaver said that there was an urgent need for Pakistan to seek Chinese technology, collaborations, partnerships and joint ventures under the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

According to a report published by Gwadar Pro, “It should be in the most essential items on CPEC agenda (for Pakistan). The (Pakistani) government should aim to create self-sufficiency in food and chemicals to reduce dependency on drastically increasing imports,” he remarked in a statement issued here.

Thaver maintained that self-sufficiency was the best answer in the present situation for a burdened and indebted economy. “The heavy imports are consuming all our hard earned foreign exchange from exports and remittances,” he added.

The Unisame chief said Pakistan needed to adopt reverse engineering for manufacturing equipment and machinery at home, just like China did in the early stages.

“Even in agriculture we need to act fast and adopt modernisation for better yields,” he contended.

Thaver urged the economic leadership to gear up and work seriously towards self-sufficiency through joint ventures under CPEC.

“The import substitution agenda of the government is not being implemented in letter and spirit. The economic managers are mostly involved in matters of survival and are not focusing on the very important matters of implementation of committed policies,” he underscored.