Industries lack plans for long-term growth: ADB

The high-growth industries in Pakistan lack industry-specific action plans that set a long-term growth vision to match with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) aimed at consolidating plans for innovation, technology adoption, and skills development of employees, said a new study published by Asian Development Bank on Monday. “The Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) developed by Singapore that explicitly consider how innovation and technology will transform jobs and skills in each industry and could provide a useful reference, according to the study titled “Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution through Skills Development in High-Growth Industries in Central and West Asia — Pakistan”. A clear industry-specific action plan for the fourth industrial revolution adoption modeled after Singapore’s ITMs could strengthen coordination among stakeholders and facilitate long-term planning for firms and training institutions, it said. The study presents analysis of data from online job portals from three countries — Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan — to assess trends in skills demand. Two focus industries were selected in each country that are crucial for growth, employment and 4IR. In Pakistan the industries covered were textile and garment manufacturing and information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO).