Pak Army chief Gen Bajwa urges more public-private cooperation to make defence industry self-reliant

Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa Friday called for an enhanced cooperation between public and private partners to make the country's defence industry a "vibrant and self-reliant" entity.

Addressing a two-day national seminar on 'Defence Production - Security through Self Reliance' held at Army Auditorium in Rawalpindi, General Bajwa said a fully integrated private sector in Pakistan's defence industry was "much wanting".

"There is a need for an enhanced public private partnership to make Pakistan defence industry vibrant, self-reliant and self-sustained entity", he said.

"Apart from public sector and defence production organisations, a fully integrated private sector in our defence industry is much wanting," the army quoted Bajwa as saying in a statement.

Bajwa said there was a need to increase indigenisation through fully integrated public and private organisations in defence production, the army said.

The seminar was aimed at paving way for self-reliance by exploring indigenous defence production potential, identifying organisational and institutional challenges of defence industry, pragmatic solutions to optimise defence production and recommending policy level measures to have fully immersed private sector in defence production, the statement said.