The government of Pakistan has reiterated to support Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Start-ups (GCIP) to create a competition and accelerate promotion of innovations in the area of clean technologies to effectively tackle the energy crisis. Shoaib Mir, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) said this while addressing an event titled "Celebrating Success" organised by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) here on Thursday.
Mir stressed on the use of clean technology in highly globalise world and the efforts made by the government for the promotion and advancement of technology and industrialisation in Pakistan. He said that he was really glad to hear about the laurels which Pakistani teams had brought at international level in this particular area and it was indeed an honour for people, government and all institutions of Pakistan.
The participants were informed that in 2015, GCIP completed second cycle, under the programme 55 SMEs and start-ups in Pakistan were supported through a programme of extensive mentoring, training, access to investors and showcasing opportunities. The UNIDO representative to Pakistan, Esam Alqararah addressing the ceremony shared UNIDO's vision on energy and environment and the efforts UNIDO is making to promote innovations regarding clean technologies in Pakistan.
The GCIP programme seeks to create new industries that bring about new jobs, prosperity as well as saving the environment. This programme has a special feature to ensure gender mainstreaming and this programme remained successful in this regard, he added.
He said that Pakistan had got the highest numbers of applicants in the world, adding that this project was unique and what benefits to this project was offering to the innovators of cleantech and also the efforts which the team are doing to make this programme sustainable and making the whole ecosystem more conducive for the entrepreneurial activities in the field of Cleantech.
Alqararah pointed out the importance of innovations for sustainable development of Pakistan and reiterated UNIDO's commitment to further strengthen cooperation with MoCC and ICCI. This competition was carried out in seven countries simultaneously around the world to foster innovations in renewable energy, energy efficiency, water efficiency and waste to energy.
The programme involves extensive mentoring, training, access to investors and opportunities to showcase their innovations and win prizes ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 along with a learning visit to Silicon Valley, USA. Atif Ikram Sheikh, President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) highlighted initiatives taken by the chamber in collaboration with UNIDO to support SMEs and entrepreneurship with a particular focus on youth and females. He was optimistic that such initiatives would promote clean technologies in SMEs and will enable them to compete more effectively in the market. He expressed keen interest to work with the UNIDO on such initiatives in the future too.
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