Innovation fastest way to emerge as knowledge economy: Alvi

Islamabad : President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday said the fastest way for Pakistan to emerge as a strong knowledge economy was through promotion of innovative entrepreneurship based on information technology.

“Innovation and emerging technologies together can open up new vistas of development and prosperity for Pakistan,” the President said at the inauguration of National Idea Bank, here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr. The National Idea Bank ‘a collaboration among academia, government, and industry’ is aimed at addressing indigenous problems using technology and innovations in business and governance models.

President Alvi said in the world of digitalization, Pakistan needed to establish a mechanism comprising thin­kers and practitioners to identify innovative ideas for different organisations. He expressed confidence that National Ideas Bank as a knowledge-intensive system would contribute to rapid pace of development compared with the conventional brick and mortar setups.

He said innovative ideas could resolve an industry problem or a social challenge in a more effective and efficient way. The President said every knowledge-based product starts with an idea to improve quality of life on planet, may it the historic ideas of Galileo, Archimedes or Newton that concluded to theories and well-established facts. He mentioned his strong interest in information technology, recalling his early years’ love for ‘mathematical games’ columns published in Scientific American magazine.

The President lauded the efforts of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology Karachi for establishing the setup to accept ideas by the people on a regular pitch schedule. He also expressed satisfaction over growth of IT-related exports during last six months, terming it an important step in attaining rapid development.

Minister for IT Syed Amin ul Haque said the credit for the idea of National Identity Bank belonged to President Arif Alvi with the process patronised by IT ministry, hosted by Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, and funded by the incubation platform, IdeaGist.com.