Imran Ashraf urged the government to launch advanced training institutes to prepare skilled workers for the surgical industry.
Imran Ashraf, a prominent surgical industry industrialist, stated, “The surgical industry will flourish if modern technology is introduced and training institutes are established, where workers will be trained and skilled labor will be produced.”
Imran Ashraf stressed the importance of modernizing Pakistan’s surgical industry through the transfer of advanced manufacturing technology from European countries. He stated on Sunday, that a century-old surgical industry was facing a skilled labor shortage. He urged the government to launch advanced training institutes to prepare skilled workers for the surgical industry.
He emphasized that some instruments, such as laparoscopic ones, were not producing value-added instruments because the raw materials were not available in Pakistan.
“We don’t have good-quality stainless steel, so we import it from Japan,” he explained, adding that high-quality instruments are made from European, Japanese, and German steel. He stated that there is no steel mill in Pakistan that can produce high-quality stainless steel. In Pakistan, a fully automatic CNC machine was not available.
Imran Asraf maintained that there was no institution in Pakistan that produced skilled labour or taught how to make tools for this industry. He stated that healthcare had evolved. A number of diseases have become more prevalent. Previously, standard instruments were used, but now customised instruments are used.
He stated that there was no lab to check the material’s specifications or biochemistry. He emphasized that material testing in Pakistan requires a full-fledged lab. He stated that in the United States, the FDA renewal fee was $1,000 per year, which had now been raised to $7,500.
The government should facilitate the surgical exporter in MDR so that this industry can boost, Imran Ashraf concluded.
The Pakistani Surgical Instruments Industry is a highly fragmented industry with a strong export orientation, based in the city of Sialkot in Pakistan’s Punjab Province. The industry is made up of many small and medium-sized manufacturers, with only a few large units.