By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Senator Syed Shibli Faraz on Wednesday said the first-ever National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy would not only bring revolution in the field of science and technology but also create economic activity in the whole country.
“This policy will help encourage technology driven economy through engaging industry, academia and the government”, the minister said during an interview.
The federal minister said, “Two such policies were formulated in the 1984 and 2009 respectively which failed or remained partially successful due to lack of implementation tools and action plan. Such laws which are not implementable are of no use.”
Considering the same view, the ministry had formulated this policy with a proper action plan by taking all the stakeholders on board and incorporating the valuable inputs of academia, industry, scientists, technologists and experts. The action plan had 62 policy statements and all the tools for achieving the targets. The policy would be shared with the public soon, he said.
He added that this policy would be a master plan for progress of the country, which would illustrate role of research and development departments and would help create a strong linkage between industry, academia (Research and Development) and the government. Earlier, these departments were working in isolation and caused wastage of resources with no outcomes, he added.
Shibli Faraz said since the policy was action-driven, they had to focus on need based research through which products could be developed. “We are inculcating such a culture where research would be done for achieving practical results, not only academic purpose. Our problems should be resolved through the help of science and technology”, he said. He said the world had transformed now and no country could survive without focusing on science and technology.
Shibli Faraz said his ministry was focusing on promoting the entrepreneurship culture at university level and creating such a platform where young people had creative ideas, would be provided funding and infrastructure to implement their ideas and develop products.
