“knowledge shops” will be opened in the Universities

Lahore: The Punjab Government has decided to adopt Suchu Industrial Parks Model to establish “Knowledge Shops” in various universities of the province. This project is aimed at linking knowledge and economy with the latest marketing technology to maximally benefit from academia in kick starting the economy of Pakistan.

This was disclosed in a meeting of Cabinet Committee to review road map for sustainable economy by benefitting from China. The meeting was headed by the Provincial Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan while Provincial Minister for Industries Ch. Muhammad Shafiq, Minister for Food Bilal Yasin, eminent educationist Prof. Zafar Iqbal Qureshi, SME Consultant Siddiq-ur-Rehman and other senior officers representing the relevant departments attended the meeting.

While addressing the participants, Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan emphasized the need to give preferential attention to promote academia-industry linkage. The Punjab government will adopt this programme as a pilot project. Knowledge shops will be established in Punjab University, UET Lahore and FAST Lahore in the first phase, he added.

The Minister said that both private and public sector universities have a pivotal role in economic activism through promotion of applied research in their respective institutions. A knowledge shop having back linkage with Chinese industry has already been established in Sundar Industrial Estate Lahore with the funding from Higher Education Commission to the tune of Rs.80 million. The establishment of knowledge shops in three major universities of Lahore will supplement the Punjab governments efforts to boost up the national economy as the largest populated province of Pakistan.

SME Consultant Siddiq-ur-Rehman while giving briefing to the meeting elaborated the nature of Sino-Pak economic bondage and disclosed that Pakistan has made no connection with 70 percent manufacturing industry of China which is run by the private sector. It is insufficient to ink MoUs with the Chinese government only. Although, the Chinese government has decided to establish 21 factories in the province of Punjab which include three chemical plants worth billions of rupees. He suggested to establish linkages with the “Trillion Club” of the Peoples Republic of China which comprises of 5 province namely Shanghai, Jian Su, Guang Dong, Zu Jiang and Shan Dong so that the SMEs could be relocated from this trillion club to the province of Punjab at a larger scale.

Rana Mashhod Ahmed Khan agreed to the suggestion and said that it was a good omen that the Punjab government has decided to establish special economic zones for this purpose. He termed it a mandatory step for Pakistan to raise its economy to 8 percent annual growth of GDP so that we would be able to provide employment to our highly skilled youth. He also stressed the need to improve trade balance with China through export of different chemicals to China which are utilized in manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. He gave the example of rock salt which is abundant which is used as raw material in manufacturing soda ash, glass manufacturing, cement industry and solar vacuum tubes manufacturing in China.

It is ironic to see Pakistan importing noodles from abroad in spite of having hundreds of flour mills in our country, the minister added. The meeting decided to import heavy duty rigs to excavate beneath 500 feet so that coal from our mines could be explored as there are reservoirs of more than 500 million tones of coal in Punjab which cannot be explored through surface mining.