Advocacy of the Certification Incentive Programme (CIP), launched by the ministry of science and technology, is vital, Federal Secretary for Science and Technology Fazal Abbass Maken said this while presiding over a meeting at All Pakistan Textile Mills Associations (APTMA) office here on Saturday.

The secretary was briefed about the working of the APTMA while Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) Chairman Dr Shehzad Alam also briefed the meeting on how the PCSIR can help the industrial sector.

Fazal Abbass said the purpose of the meeting was to listen to the concerned people besides knowing their views on the CIP and to discuss about creating interface so that better working mechanism could be evolved.

He said that joint efforts were needed to make research and development programmes. He said the PCSIR should make brochures to tell industrial sector about the areas in which PCSIR help was available.

The secretary, speaking on Nano technology, said that there was a model of Sri Lanka Institute of Nano technology (SLINTEC) and planning was underway to move forward with it.

The meeting recommended the CIP should not be confined to small medium enterprises (SMEs).

It is pertinent to mention here that main objectives of the CIP are to guide and support the SMEs for new trends of international competitiveness, improved industrial productivity and quality.

Some of other objectives are to provide incentive grants to some 2000 SMEs in developing a certification framework to improve business practices and enhancing export, to improve competitiveness of Pakistani entrepreneurs in global supply chain and to organise training programmes for stakeholders in an establishment of certification systems.