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

Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa Friday called for enhanced cooperation between public and private partners to make the country's defense 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 defense industry was "much wanting".

"There is a need for an enhanced public-private partnership to make Pakistan defense industry vibrant, self-reliant and self-sustained entity", he said. "Apart from public sector and defense production organizations, a fully integrated private sector in our defense industry is much wanting," the army quoted Bajwa as saying in a statement.

Bajwa said there was a need to increase indigenization through fully integrated public and private organizations in defense production, the army said. The seminar was aimed at paving way for self-reliance by exploring indigenous defense production potential, identifying organizational and institutional challenges of the defense industry, pragmatic solutions to optimize defense production and recommending policy level measures to have fully immersed private sector in defense production, the statement said.