Mirpur: (Parliament Times) Stressing the need for promoting qualitative knowledge, the President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan has said that AJK could be turned into Silicon Valley and IT hub provided the focus was laid on building a knowledge society and a knowledge-based economy.
The President Azad Jammu and Kashmir said this while addressing a seminar titled “Promoting of Technology and Entrepreneurship in Azad Jammu and Kashmir†here on Monday. The seminar was organized by the Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST) and Sandbox Pvt Limited.
“Turning AJK into Silicon Valley and IT hub could supplement and augment Pakistan’s burgeoning IT marketâ€, the AJK president said adding that ”It can also host high-tech corporations and venture capitalâ€. He said that knowledge is an overarching framework for development of any region or country. ” In Azad Kashmir we should consciously build a knowledge society and a knowledge-based economyâ€, he said adding that Azad Kashmir was ripe for that kind of transition.
Sardar Masood khan advised all the universities of AJK to reconfigure their curricula in the light of the emerging economic landscape, especially with reference to AJK’s integration with CPEC. ”Their competencies should be relevant to infrastructure development, power generation and management of energy plants, industrial parks, fiber optics, mining, agricultural farms, growing fruits and flowers, for this purpose, the universities should set up business schools and training institutions to equip graduates with the skills of corporate management, finance and marketing, among others.” he said.
”Overall, at the moment the technology threshold in AJK is low, but we are bound to expand it as we build dams, construct expressways, promote tourism, and accelerate overall economic growthâ€, Khan said adding that in Mirpur, a state of the art industrial zone will be established, under the umbrella of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Khan told the audience that this zone itself will, perforce, put a demand on AJK universities to produce graduates and skilled personnel who would be able to run various enterprises in industrial zone. ”This would also stimulate competitiveness and knowledge-intensive economic activities.” he said.
He informed that for promotion of technology and entrepreneurship, the AJK Government will strengthen efforts to enhance space for the private sector.” This is necessary to absorb the growing skilled manpower and to unleash the full potential of small and medium sized businesses.” he added
The president advised to create a strong interface between industry, the private sector and academic instructions, industry and institutions like MUST should work more closely.
He urged the AJK Chamber of Commerce and Industry to act as a matchmaker between industry, business and universities.
He stated that embryonic IT entities and enterprises in AJK should tie up their endeavors with all AJK universities, as well as with Pakistani universities, and establish work closely with the University of Kotli specializing in management sciences and IT, and MUST. ”Let us attract our Diaspora community back to Azad Kashmir, especially in the IT sector, my sense is that they are ready to do so if we together create the right conditions. Simultaneously, we should assimilate our own talent into our economic ecosystemâ€, he added.
He said that the Pakistan District Education Rankings 2016 report released by Alif Ailaan and Sustainable Development Policy Institute established that AJK is ahead of national Pakistani average of literacy and other educational indicators, except Islamabad Capital Territory, scoring 81.68. ”We have five universities, two of which are devoted to science and technology, management sciences and information technology, within these universities and several post graduate colleges, we have emerging pockets of excellence which need to be smartly linked up.” he added.
He asked to learn to manage knowledge for sustained and sustainable development. ”Though leading in literacy, AJK is lagging behind in quality and infrastructure, our challenge is to promote qualitative knowledge and learn knowledge management.’’ he said. He emphasized to give higher importance to the core disciplines of mathematics and basic sciences to sustain this effort.
” Like Pakistan, Azad Kashmir too has a youth budge and nearly 60 percent of our youth are entering into the labour market.” he said. He advised the concerned sectors to take optimum benefit from all these factors; AJK has to skillfully use entrepreneurship as a catalyst.
The president warned that unbaked, uniformed policies or misaligned aspirations will not do the miracle. ” Incubators will fail if they are not properly seeded up. We need technological innovations and inroads into the neighbouring markets to realize this ambition.” he added
The President AJK warned that opposition to meritocracy is rampant and it is a big barrier to the emergence of a fully vibrant and self-reliant Azad Kashmir.” People, not just politicians, bureaucrats and teachers, are used to hindering decisions based on merit. They invoke ethnicity, regionalism, and parochialism to distort the very definition of merit ” he said