Director Prof Dr Asif Ali presents a memento to FCCI President Sohail Bin Rasheed

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) and Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) will strengthen their academia and industry linkages for economic development and productivity enhancement. It was discussed at a meeting held at the Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC), UAF on Friday. The meeting was co-chaired by ORIC Director Prof Dr Asif Ali and FCCI President Sohail Bin Rasheed. Talking to participants, Sohail Bin Rasheed said that the linkages will enable the industry to get experts’ innovative solution and ideas regarding different challenges of the industrial sector. He said that strengthened linkages are essential to make the sustainable development as a step towards meeting the demands of modern era and alleviate poverty. He said that the FCCI has mapped out a comprehensive plan to set up the Business Incubation Centre at the chamber in order to provide opportunity to new entrepreneurs to showcase and commercialize their goods. He said that FCCI had been selected as focal agency in Youth Internship Programme. As many as 8000 students of Faisalabad had been provided internships, he added. Prof Dr Asif Ali said that the UAF is making all out efforts to commercialize the research and innovation that are the prerequisite to compete with the rest of the world. He also suggested to the FCCI to become partner with UAF in outreach programme to address the issues of the farming community at their doorstep. He said that ORIC has commercialized many innovations of the university that will help in flourish the agricultural sector. He was of the view that Pakistan was the fifth largest producer of the milk. But per animal milk production is low whereas the more than 50 milk is produced under hygienic condition that is also a matter of concern. He said that commercialization of innovation would help address the different agricultural challenges. He said that the ORIC is taking all tangible steps to transform the researches into commercialization.