Innovation workshop: Entrepreneurship key to unlocking economic activity

FCCI VP says youth bulge needs to be converted into economic asset

FAISALABAD: Innovation and entrepreneurship are a prerequisite to generating much-needed economic activity in the country and in this connection linkages between the industry and academia will be further strengthened, said Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) F.

He was addressing the inaugural session of a workshop on innovation and entrepreneurship jointly organised by the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) and the Institute of Engineers Pakistan (IEP) on Monday.

He said Pakistan was a country of more than 190 million people, making it the sixth largest country in the world by population. Out of this, more than 30% people fall within the prime productive age of 18 to 30 years.

With a rapidly increasing young population and already high unemployment rates, it was becoming increasingly difficult for the government as well as policymakers to provide jobs for the youth in the prevailing circumstances, he added.

In that situation, Hasan said, innovation and entrepreneurship was the only available solution through which Pakistan could convert its youth into a productive and valuable economic asset.

Underlining the prevailing trends, he said most of the educational institutes were producing a lot of degree-holders and job-seekers, who had become a burden on the already squeezed resources.

He said entrepreneurship meant ownership and self-determination which was opposed to becoming dependent on somebody else for livelihood. The educational institutions must concentrate on producing entrepreneurs who could start their own businesses in addition to offering jobs to others, he added.

Appreciating the efforts of University of Agriculture in this regard, he said that the university has been actively encouraging entrepreneurship among its students. FCCI was also promoting industry-academia linkages in order to harness the entrepreneurial skills of the youth at all levels, he added.

He also lauded the efforts of the DICE (Distinguished Innovations, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship) foundation and said that he had attended a function arranged by this foundation  just a few weeks ago and was impressed by the initiative taken by it and innovative ideas displayed by the participants of this event.

He further said that new entrepreneurs should focus on demand-driven products and business models as without innovation we cannot survive in this competitive world. He said that if new innovations and ideas are driven by the objective of filling major market gaps, then it will become much easier to commercialise these ideas.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2016.

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