ISLAMABAD - President Dr Arif Alvi has urged the management of Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) to focus on Research and Development (R&D), and modernization to further improve its efficiency and productivity. During his visit to Pakistan Ordnance Factories Wah, the other day, the president said, “The defence production sector has immense potential for growth which can be fully realized by continuously improving the capacity of its human resource and adopting emerging and critical technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence, virtual reality and robotics.” He underlined the need to employ modern marketing techniques and improve the efficiency of supply chain to consolidate our position in existing markets and increasing our footprint in new and non-traditional markets by promoting Pakistani defence products which were of high quality, effective and dependable in any given situation, and were at the same time very cost-effective. The president appreciated POF for its pivotal role in moving toward self-sufficiency and meeting the growing demand of country’s defence sector and civilian security agencies, as well as capturing foreign markets by improving its efficiency, adopting quality financial management practices and digitalizing its processes to transform POF into a self-sustainable and progressive defence industrial complex. The president visited different parts of POF where he was given an overview of the production and manufacturing processes. He also took keen interest in different displayed defence products manufactured at POF. The president was also briefed on the role of POF in fulfilling the ammunition requirements of Pakistan’s armed forces and law enforcement agencies, and steps taken by it to develop academia-industry linkages.