Government urged to evolve plan for promoting R&D in private sector

Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, President of Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS), has urged the government to evolve a comprehensive strategy to promote research and development (R&D) culture in the private sector. He was speaking at first marketing & branding summit, titled 'Driving Growth in the Digital Age:
Challenges and Opportunities', jointly organised by Memon Professional Forum (MPF) and Nutshell Forum along with Marketing Association of Pakistan and Pakistan Software Houses Association held at local hotel here on Saturday. Contrary to the international trend, there is no R&D unit established by the private sector in the country. Therefore, Dr Atta said, the R&D culture, which does not exist, especially in the private sector, should be promoted by the government through different incentives like tax relief, financial assistance, etc, to encourage the sector to mobilise all its resources to follow the international trend.
Talking about his achievements in the past, the PAS President said that the government had chalked out a 15-year roadmap for IT sector in 2002, which needs to be continued with true spirit to compete in the contemporary IT era. He gave examples of the digital development of Korea and Japan, saying that this country could not move forward in digital age unless it has visionary and honest leadership.
He said that the country has around 80 million population of the ages of 16-30 years, hence it is the need of the hour to invest more in education to transform the people from unskilled to knowledgeable workers. He said that science and technology may facilitate the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through sustained and enhanced economic growth; provide employment opportunities, enhance market efficiency; tackle population growth issues; climate change and environmental degradation.
Dr Atta said the policies related to science and technology are crucial and central to the development prospects of Pakistan in two distinct yet interconnected ways. First, science and technology can provide tools that would help alleviate the specific problems that afflict the nation and impede their development prospects, such as disease, lack of infrastructure (energy, information, transport, etc) and degradation of the environment. Second, science and technology are central to the dynamics of economic development itself.
Earlier, Muhammad Zubair, chairman of the conference committee presented address of welcome, followed by the speech of Asif Ismail, President of Memon Professional Forum. Later on, Sohail Wajahat, managing director of Siemens Pakistan, Tahir A Khan, chairman of Interflow group, Amer Pasha, country manager of Pakistan and Afghanistan Visa international, Kalim A Siddiqui, president of Byco Petroleum, Abdul Qadir Memon, former president of MPF, and others presented their views.