Pakistan on point of economic takeoff, says Ahsan Iqbal
Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal Thursday said that Pakistan is on the point of economic takeoff to become emerging economic power of Asia.
"We all need to synergies our energies to give engines of Pakistan economy full thrust for smooth takeoff, he said." Addressing as chief guest one day symposium "How to develop strong linkages between, Business and Industry and Academia" organized by Higher Education Commission (HEC) Ahsan Iqbal said that the way government, army, judiciary and other segments of society demonstrated unity to fight terrorism should be replicated for economic development.
He said that verdict of Supreme Court in favour of parliament is reflection that all institutions are on one page to eliminate terrorism once and for all from the country.
He said that two years vigorous efforts turned Pakistan into promising destination for business and investment in 2015 compared to 2013. "The western media today is portraying Pakistan as fast emerging economy of Asia by terming Pakistan the new success story on economic horizon", he pointed. "We need to create a positive outlook by infusing the conviction of positivity," Ahsan added.
Speaking about theme of symposium, the minister emphasized the need for aligning knowledge platform with production platform without which the dream of robust growth can't be realized.
He said that without this alignment, the investment of billions of rupees in business and producing PHDs in science would go waste. He said that government initiated one billion rupees Technology Innovation Fund to promote culture of innovations in scientific field. Ahsan said that technology is the name of new game in the world and countries with no innovations are bound to fail.
He said that academia-industry link platform are also required to be competitive in the global market. Chairman HEC, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed gave acknowledged the efforts of Prof. Ahsan Iqbal in patronizing HEC and said that today's symposium is the brainchild of Ahsan Iqbal, who motivated HEC to hold this symposium in order to create academia industry link. The symposium was attended by vice chancellors, industry leaders and entrepreneurs.