We are living in an era of knowledge economies; and there is nothing better than investing in education. Punjab government has realised this fact and is working on to build a knowledge park in Lahore with a project outlay of over $1 billion spanning over two decades. The idea was conceived couple of years back, and a company was formed in October 2014 with Shahid Zaman as the founding CEO.
The knowledge park idea is not new to the world, and the first science park was built a few decades ago in UK under the umbrella of Cambridge University. The idea is picked up well by various developed and developing economies, and today one can find parks in China, Iran, Turkey, India, Korea and many other emerging economies. There are around 500 parks in the world today and similar number is under development; LKP is one of them!
The idea of the Punjab government is to build two parks, each in Lahore and Faisalabad, and likely develop a third in Rawalpindi - the first one of course is in Lahore. The government is eyeing to complete the first phase of LKP in three years - 18 months have passed by; and yesterday in 11th board meeting of LKP, preliminary master plan was approved. The board comprises of seasoned professionals from private sector including Razak Dawood, Sohail Naqvi and Salima Hashmi.
After approval of preliminary the master plan, detailed plan will be completed and approved in a few weeks. The design process will be done in couple of months, and the ground breaking of project is targeted in September 2016. The goal is to complete the phase 1 by March 2018.
The idea is to build the foundation in three years and to bring the institution to a level where it would be insulated from any one political party backing. The project investment by government will be there for its life of 25 years; but major chunk would be injected in initial phases to kick start it.
The Punjab Government has allocated Rs2 billion for LKP in FY17 budget; but Mr. Zaman is confident based on boards plan to raise it to Rs4 billion, which he will be presenting soon to Chief Minister. The idea is to build the foundation in first phase, and then roll on another major chunk in the second phase. Beyond that, it would primarily be the private sector to invest, while government would limit its role to facilitation.
In the process, the need may arise to change the LKP from a section 42 company to an authority. The idea is to make it a tax free zone to entice private investment, both foreign and local. The LKP is envisaged on public private partnership model with 20 percent equity to be injected by government, while the rest is for the private sector to invest.
Out of Rs105 billion total project outlay, Punjab governments grant would be Rs21 billion. This is in addition to free allocation of 852 acres of prime urban land. Out of it, 50 acres are for a Kidney Institute, which is separate from the knowledge park. It will be a self sustaining model with central business district to generate revenues to subsidise education, research and innovation.
There are four sectors identified in the master plan - ICT, life sciences and bio technology, engineering and sciences, and creative industries. A team of consultants has looked at the needs of the economy and penned down these four sectors. Its imperative to have facilitation and services for starts up. The idea is to have cross fertilisation. There will be a business school as well. Its a life style concept - people will work and live there. We are building a smart city and a green city", emphasized Zaman.
The LKP is envisioned to be a fourth generation park - it will provide a complete life style. The plan has educational component, research centres, incubators, and it has existing businesses in those particular sectors that are to be placed in the park. There will be a continuous interaction between industries and academia to strengthen the linkages.
In coming eighteen months, LKP will use government grant to build the basic infrastructure including roads, drainage, electricity and gas. It would start building two campuses, and priority is to complete incubators and some housing infrastructure. The government is eyeing to populate the park in phase 1 - incubators functioning and budding entrepreneurs spurring.
Latest construction technology is likely to be deployed for the construction of incubators. The pre-fabricated technology has advanced to a level where construction time can be reduced to a tenth. LKP management is confident to bring the new technologies in place for parts of park construction.
Seeing is believing! Once the hustle bustle is in the park with incubators functioning; and people are living there with basic amenities; and civil work on two campuses is in process, there is more chance of serious private investor committing to the park.
The board has kept the idea on number of campuses open as it may be 5 big campuses or even have higher number, in addition to a convention centre, which is a recent addition in the master plan. The idea is to have foreign universities opening up schools here, and with more variety the cross fertilisation would bring innovation to the next level.
Its a great initiative to revive the Lahore heritage, which used to be the cultural centre of Northern Indian Subcontinent. It is also known as the educational and IT hub of Pakistan. Good luck Punjab Government!