THE four-day Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS 2024), held at Karachi Expo Centre, proved a remarkable success as the country was able to sign as many as 82 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with friendly countries to export defence products and equipment including advanced drones, fighter jets, commercial and logistic ships, electronic warfare equipment and radars worth US$30 billion. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 12th edition of IDEAS 2024, Secretary Defence Production Lt Gen (Retd) Chiragh Haider said that, after the inclusion of the MoUs signed at previous editions of IDEAS, Pakistan had received potential export orders worth $36 billion.
No doubt, the MoUs are not export orders and it will take some time to translate them into specific projects but the very fact that the country attracted such a large number potential buyers involving deals worth billions of dollars is in itself a remarkable feat of all those involved in defence production. This has effectively put Pakistan on the map of exporters of defence equipment and a salute to the technological capabilities and quality of defence production, which is widely hailed throughout the globe. The organizers of IDEAS also deserve credit as the effort has been instrumental in diversifying the export market as there are now new opportunities from the African and East Asian regions. This newspaper has all along been emphasizing the need for initiation of meaningful collaboration with some friendly countries for defence production. In this backdrop, we welcome signing of an MoU between Turkiye and POF Wah to set up a plant. Similarly, NRTC has signed 11 technology, communication and radar MoUs with Middle Eastern and African countries. It may be mentioned that apart from export potential, the defence industry is extending valuable support in meeting crucial defence needs of the country. There is, therefore, a strong justification to invest properly on research and development in the field of defence production for the sake of self-reliance.
