Call to strengthen linkages between industry and academia

Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Thursday called for strengthening linkages between industry and academia to pave way for the production of top quality human resource that formed the core of a knowledge-based economy.
"We no longer live in the industrialisation age rather it is the information age and any country that does not build a knowledge-based economy would fail to make headway into the next information age," he said while addressing the launching ceremony for setting up an 'IT Forum for Young Entrepreneurs/Innovators' by Institute of Information Technology of the Quaid-e-Azam University in collaboration with the Unesco, says a press release.
He said his ministry had set up a well-structured R&D fund which had extended scholarships worth millions of rupees to deserving students to pursue MS and PhD studies abroad and the fund could also be used to support specific skill development courses as identified by the industry and academia.
Awais said the telecom sector had already provided an ideal platform for a revolution in the IT sector and with the mobile phone users touching 25 million mark and some 20 millions more to be added within the next year.
He said the government had also launched a multimillion Venture Capital Fund to promote managerial and entrepreneurial skills, finance new businesses and start-up companies keen on producing service-based IT solutions. "We would also focus on academic institutions as the ministry wants to work them to develop interesting ideas and specific entrepreneurial skills," he added.
Earlier, Professor Dr Qasim Jan, Vice-chancellor, Quaid-e-Azam University, said IT had become the engine of economic growth and it was good to see Pakistan notching up successes in this sector.
He said the QAU was already in the process of bringing innovative changes in its academic programmes, which would reflect a rich blend of both applied and theoretical aspects of Information Technology besides supporting research and development consistent with the market.