LAHORE: The Punjab University (PU) Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and Plan9 Technology Incubator signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday for promotion of entrepreneurial skills among students.

Under the MoU, various capacity-building programmes will be organised for students so they could interact with institutions and commercial world.

Speaking at the ceremony, PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zaffar Mueen Nasir said the initiative would take the varsity`s efforts to instill entrepreneurial spiritamong its students a step ahead. He said the MoU would also promote cohesion between the industry and academia.

Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development Director Nabeel A Qadeer said Plan9 and PU would forge strong ties between industry and academia for the progress of the two sectors.

Sajida Nisar said the incubator would provide access to its network of trainers, mentors and investors to incubatees of IBA. Workshops, trainings and mentoring sessions would be arranged at the IBA premises.

Start-ups would be invited to interact with Plan9 mentors. She said that an exchange programme would be initiatedwhereby a start-up nominated by IBA would be offered an incubation spot at Plan9every cycle, she said.

UVAS: The University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) recommended enhancing import duty on whey milk and powdered mill( to at least 75 per cent.

Presiding over a meeting here on Tuesday, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha discussed the federal budget 2017-18 with particular reference to livestock sector. The representatives from Pakistan Poultry Association, dairy industry and farmer community also attended the meeting.

The meeting also recommended that fisheries, poultry and red meat sectors beincluded in the zero-rated sectors. It said the government should introduce a package for poultry meat processing industry as the sector was fast moving towards processing era.

A special incentive pacl(age should be introduced to reduce the cost of poultry feed ingredients, which was increased substantially in 2013. The participants said heavy import duties/taxes on main feed ingredients were affecting the poultry feed industry.

Dr Pasha said livestock was a major source of livelihood for poor farmers and the key to revival of the crisis-hit agriculture sector was to focus on profitability of small farmers.