‘Industry-academia linkages key to economic growth’

ISLAMABAD: Industry-academia linkages are powerful sustainers of industrial agglomerations as they serve to widen knowledge about application of latest technologies in different diversified sectors and propel economic growth, said Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Asif Mahmood Jah on Monday.

He said that while talking to a corporate sector delegation led by Almas Hyder, chairman Spel Technology Support.

“A strong linkage ensures that research and development activities in universities are fully oriented towards demands in the markets,” Jah said, adding, Pakistan needed people to be on the ball to continue to innovate and create new applications to meet demands of domestic and global markets. He was of the view that the linkages help academician to upgrade on advancing technologies via technology transfer and knowledge sharing. “Universities are the best partners as they have the right environment with brilliant minds interacting with one another having access to technologies that can help in the endeavours.”

Jah said proper funding through proper combination of industrial partnership would help bridge skills gap and produce the 21st century workforce anywhere around the globe. He said the West had made tremendous progress after industrial revolution and industry was strengthened by academia-industry linkages. “Now, there is great emphasis in East to bridge the academia and industry.”

Pakistan, among other Asian countries, was far behind in the development of the relationship, and commercialisation of high technology products became possible through strong academia-industry linkage, he added.

Almas Hyder said he had made efforts for getting free support of AutoDesk software, valued $2.69 million, from a US company for the University of Home Economics (UHE) to help impart latest knowledge to students and train on-job professional executives through evening programs.

He stated that faculty and students would have direct free access to Autodesk software, adding that Spel Technology Support had inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with vice chancellor of UHE Kanwal Ameen and handed over Autodesk software, which included ten design tools like AutoCAD, 3dsMax, Maya, Mudbox, Flame ,Fusion 360, Inverter, ReCap pro, Arnold, and character Generation.

The design tools are being used worldwide in developing latest designing in architecture, engineering, construction, media, entertainment, design and manufacturing sectors, he added.

Hyder expressed his commitment to academia and industry to continue to support educational institutions in the country, saying the goal of his company was to design a product that could be easily and economically manufactured as 70 percent cost of a product was determined by the design decisions, he concluded.