Innovation and new ideas were crucial to human evolution because they paved the way for future advancement and progress according to the President.
The president emphasised on Monday the need to develop intellectual resources for Pakistan’s progress and prosperity on a sustainable basis and claimed that the country had a great deal of potential to foster innovation.
While speaking at the National Idea Bank Grand Finale ceremony held at the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology Karachi to award prizes to winners of the national contest of innovative ideas, the president noted that promoting innovative ideas, focusing on the health and education sectors, timely adoption of and adaptation to emerging technologies, as well as setting up the right priorities and prudent political decision-making, were the keys to steering the nation onto the path of development.
According to him, innovation and new ideas were crucial to human evolution because they paved the way for future advancement and progress.
Along with the development of natural resources, he continued, the development of intellectual resources was essential for the nation’s long-term progress. According to him, any nation that wants to advance always places health and education at the top of its list of priorities.
Intellectual resources refer to the intangible assets that contribute to the development of knowledge, ideas, and innovation. These resources include human expertise, intellectual property, research and development capabilities, data and information, and organizational culture and values.
A good healthcare system will ensure the country’s physical and mental well-being, and a comprehensive, up-to-date educational system will meet its need for intellectual vigor. He added that Pakistan could join the fastest-moving development vehicle of IT by supporting the ideas of our youth in the IT sector and building intellectual advantage in IT.
He claimed that the information technology sector was the one that was growing the fastest globally and that it included all other sectors of fundamental importance like finance, manufacturing, agriculture, education, and health.
The president claimed that while information technology platforms could be used to increase literacy rates, particularly for promoting higher education and technical and vocational training, over 22 million children in Pakistan were not in school.
According to Dr. Alvi, 200 billion Internet of Things (IoT) are anticipated to be available in the IT spectrum in the upcoming year, with 3.4 million IT experts currently needed worldwide. He added that Pakistan could take advantage of the opportunities by concentrating on the IT sector.
The Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, stated during the ceremony that the main goal of the “Ideas Bank” was to gather creative ideas.
He claimed that young people made up 60% of the 220 million people in the country, making them an asset that needed to be promoted and used by arming them with contemporary technologies to hasten the process of national progress.
The IT ministry has started the Karachi IT Park project, and an MoU has been inked to establish a centre of excellence in gaming and animation at the NED University in Karachi. Chancellor Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology Javed Anwar said universities should promote entrepreneurship by nurturing new ideas and concepts, and the National Idea Bank was a significant step forward in that regard. Over 3,700 ideas were submitted for NIB, and 30 were selected for prizes from a wide range of sectors.
The president announced that 18 ideas were selected as winners of the National Ideas Bank contest, and 15 start-ups based on the winning ideas have already begun their operations.
The Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication has launched a unique programme to provide world-class training to 4,000 IT graduates by the Pakistan Software Export Board, Pakistan Software House Association (PASHA), and 21 leading technology companies.
The Techlift boot camp programme aims to train and recruit 4000 eligible graduates for roles in the software industry. It was started in May 2022 and 1,800 IT graduates successfully completed their training session and were awarded certificates. The remaining 2,200 graduates will complete their training by June 2023.