‘Pakistan to be among top 25 economies of world by 2025’

LAHORE
Pakistan Edition of the prestigious “MIT Technology Review” was launched by Information Technology University (ITU) on Saturday.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Prof. Ahsan Iqbal was the chief guest at the launching ceremony of the Massachusetts Institute Technology while Vice-Chancellor ITU and Chairman Punjab IT Board (PITB) Dr Umar Saif hosted the ceremony. US Consul General Lahore Zachary Harkenrider, Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Mukhtar Ahmad and a large number of people were present.
Addressing the ceremony, Prof. Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan had become a progressing country that was well-positioned to rank among top 25 economies of the world by 2025 due to visionary policies that stood on strategic economic roadmap, sustainable growth and a conducive investment environment.
He said modern technology had been made an integral part of these policies as sustainable development could not go a long way without inclusion of contemporary research and technology.
Congratulating IT University on starting the publication of a world renowned magazine, he said it would rightly play the same role here as it had done in the USA and other developing countries.
The federal minister also said the journal would enable us how to focus on new trends of modern technology and how it could be commercialised within our own designs. He hoped that the initiative taken by ITU and PITB would equally provide a broad base for guidance and policy-making to the whole country. He assured the Planning Commission of Pakistan of collaborating with ITU in technology based development projects.
Earlier, Dr Umar Saif, who is also the Editor of the MIT Technology Review Pakistan while welcoming the participants, said “The Technology Review” was a flagship of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launched in 1899 from USA and available in six languages in 147 countries as an authority on the future of technology that attracted an informed and influential audience of business executives and technology innovators. He said ITU was the first IT University of Pakistan of its kind and also the first to launch a world standard IT magazine from Pakistan.
Dr Umar Saif further said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed between ITU and Middle-East Technical University (METU) to form an academic collaboration.
The US Consul General said MIT Tech Review would form new horizons of collaboration between the US and Pakistan in the field of research, academia, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. He said the US government would continue its cooperation for the well performing educational institutions in Pakistan as it believed that academia should be backed up for sustainable development.
Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad termed Pakistan MIT Tech Review a historic moment for universities across the country and hoped the Review would become a model for others in the field of international academic and scientific research and scholarship. He extended his full cooperation to make it a success and a tool for change in Pakistan.