Pakistan being recognised as emerging economy: Ahsan Iqbal

Says many countries interested in becoming part of CPEC

Lahore

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Prof Ahsan Iqbal has said innovation has become a basic currency of Pakistan.

He was this while addressing the 6th Invention to Innovation Summit organised by Punjab University and others at Al Raazi Hall here on Wednesday.

PU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Zafar Mueen Nasir, UMT Rector Hassan Sohaib Murad, Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf, researchers, scientists, faculty members and a large number of students were present.

Addressing the summit, the minister said that the incumbent government was using its position for economic cooperation. He said that Pakistan which was previously known for terrorism now was being recognised as emerging economy and centre of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He said that many countries had expressed their interest in becoming part of CPEC, which was a great change. He said that Gwadar would become model port city and centre of trade of the region in the next 20 years.

He said, "We must put our country on road to wealth production with the participation of all the areas and segments of the country."

He said, "We must adopt the principal of 'survival of the fittest' and our products and services must match international standards." He said there was no buyer for poor quality products. He said that Pakistan could not compete international markets unless we had strong industry-academia linkage. He said, "Our religious leadership had failed to play role in highlighting importance of invention and innovation.

He said that there was 18-hour loadshedding three years ago but now electricity remained available 18 hours a day. He said that unprecedented investment had been made in energy sector in the last three years and 10,000 megawatt additional electricity would be added by 2018. He said the world was restoring confidence in Pakistan and foreign automobile giants would set up their factories in country. He said that the government would produce 20 thousand PhDs in the next ten years and 10 thousand PhDs would be produced under US-Pak Knowledge Corridor project in top-ranked US universities. He said that it was our responsibility to equip our youth with knowledge and skill. He urged the students to believe in Pakistan’s bright future and say good-bye to negative thinking. He congratulated Lahoris on successful PSL final in the city and said that we would completely defeat terrorism. 

Addressing the conference, PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zafar Mueen Nasir said that universities as creators of knowledge had to be linked with real economy to shape up true knowledge economy. He said that we need to provide latest technologies to add value in our raw materials and export high value products and services. Prof Dr Muhammad Ashraf said that PSA was striving for generating funds and currently executing 35 international projects. He said that modern countries were focusing on reverse engineering. Rector Hasan Sohaib Murad said that Pakistan was losing competitiveness in foreign markets due to which our exports were decreasing. He said that we needed to revamp our business schools and gap between academia and industry must be reduced. C Abid Sherwani said that it’s a platform to buy and sell technologies and find solutions to technological problems.

Lahore Chamber of Commerce’s Vice President Amjad Rajwana stressed the need to introduce policies and create environment to enhance country’s export volume.

Later, Federal Minister Prof Ahsan Iqbal inaugurated technology exhibition and visited all the stalls. He also took special interest in various indigenous technologies for their commercialization. The summit would continue today.