By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) and the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) have agreed to work together for promoting industry-academia linkages in order to produce demand-driven students who could contribute towards improving industrial productivity and boost industrialization in the region.
This consensus was reached during a visit of a delegation of MUML led by it’s Rector Maj. Gen. Muhammad Jaffar HI(M) (Retd) to ICCI on Thursday.
Pro-Rector Research Dr. Muhammad Zubair Iqbal and Head of Department of Management Sciences Dr. Faid Gul were in the delegation. The delegation held a meeting with President ICCI Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan and discussed with him the importance of strong industry-academia linkages for commercialization of innovative business ideas of students in order to improve the industrial development and economic growth of the country. Fatma Azim Senior Vice President, Abdul Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI and Muhammad Aslam Khokhar Executive Member ICCI were also present at the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Jaffar HI(M) (Retd) said that universities could help the local industry in improving its productivity, efficiency and competitiveness through strong academia-industry linkages. He said that research departments of universities were conducting good research work in various fields, but due to lack of coordination, local industry was not benefiting from these research projects.
The Rector NUML urged that industry should share its problems with universities so that academia could find out their optimum solutions. He said that NUML has established a dedicated block for display of industrial products and ICCI should cooperate in showcasing the potential of local industrial products through their display in that facility. The delegation also briefed the ICCI team about the initiatives of NUML for promoting quality education in various disciplines and languages. Addressing the NUML delegation, President ICCI Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that in this age of knowledge economy where technologies were changing fast, industries were increasingly relying on technology-driven solutions for enhancing productivity. He said that universities being the hub of research activities should play a bigger role in finding out innovative solutions to the key issues of industry and the society at large.
He emphasized that universities should focus on applied research to accelerate the pace of industrialization. He said that over 60 percent of the population of Pakistan was comprised of youth and universities should focus on fostering entrepreneurship in students to make them job creators instead of job seekers. Sardar Yasir Ilyas said ICCI was ready to cooperate with NUML in placement of its students as interns in local industrial units. He appreciated the efforts of NUML for providing quality education to students and hoped that close collaboration between ICCI and NUML would yield beneficial results for students and industry. Senior Vice President ICCI Fatma Azim, Vice President Abdul Rehman Khan and Executive Member ICCI Muhammad Aslam Khokhar also shared various ideas for developing strong industry-academia linkages to strengthen the economy.
