President Alvi calls for promoting innovation

The fastest way for Pakistan to become a strong knowledge economy is through promotion of innovative entrepreneurship based on information technology, said President Arif Alvi.

Addressing the inauguration of National Ideas Bank on Thursday, the president said, “Innovation and emerging technologies together can open new vistas of development and prosperity for Pakistan.”

National Ideas Bank - a collaboration among the academia, government and industry - is aimed at addressing problems in using technology and innovation in business and governance models.

President Alvi said that in the world of digitalisation, Pakistan needed to establish a mechanism comprising thinkers and practitioners to identify the innovative ideas for different organisations.

He expressed confidence that National Ideas Bank as a knowledge-intensive system would contribute to the rapid pace of development compared with the conventional brick and mortar setups.

He was of the view that 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 the quality of life on planet, may it be historic ideas of Galileo, Archimedes or Newton that introduced theories and well-established facts.”

He lauded efforts of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication and Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology Karachi for establishing a system that would accept ideas from the people on a regular pitch schedule.

He expressed satisfaction over the growth of IT-related exports over the last six months, terming it an important step on the path of rapid development.

Also speaking on the occasion, Minister for IT Syed Aminul Haque said the IT ministry was taking steps in the right direction and highlighted the progress on projects including local manufacturing of smartphones and launch of an e-parliament system with electronic tablets to replace the file system by June.

IdeaGist Founder Hassan Syed said with 49 types of emerging technologies across the world, there was a huge opportunity for Pakistan to create social and commercial value of products through innovation.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2021.

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