Innovation

Pakistan needs innovation for sustained economic growth but without the required educated and skilled workforce it cannot attain that innovative threshold. Lack of innovative spirit in public and even in the country’s most well off private enterprises is not just a matter of insufficient resources or ill-conceived policies but more of an un-supportive culture. In the absence of R&D culture where private sector shies away from investing in ingenuity endeavors, government needs to step in to bring transformation at least as a spark plug. Despite previous failures, it critically needs to develop an industry-university R&D alliance targeted at “high pay off” technical areas’ achievable by two pronged strategy; In Private sector: an industry-led alliance of leading firms’ conceiving a medium term roadmap that details broad science and technology requirements shared by the market. In Public sector: Government tactfully should identify areas of preeminence in order to catalyze breakthroughs in spheres of national importance' where market may not likely be directed on its own like population, pollution, agriculture. Government can also produce or support new or underdeveloped markets by identifying products for the underprivileged and in subsequent bidding process it can follow China’s example by allowing tenders from those companies who manufacture that produce locally, this way strengthening the market segment and creating employment. But before going onto that front' country’s leadership needs to forgo destructive clout of the pampered, monopolistic array of influential public and private enterprises and allow level playing field where young start-ups could flourish in ingenuity and competitiveness. Productive education gives birth to ingeniousness and Pakistan's case is disappointing. Rather then making Higher Education a purview of solely Public or pure Commercial domains, it should rather be the market and industry that be the stakeholders and architect of university programs. With tailor made, toned-to-industry, market-driven skill acquisition education system, an ideal workforce could be generated with real-world competencies. Every reputed corporation has its own surrogate skill development system (that trains fresh graduates according to their requirements) such trainings should be made part of university programs instead. Big corporations could also be allowed to ‘own’ certain university programs in terms of fund raising, designing curricula, in-take, training and subsequent hiring of its own produce. There’s also need to shift the emphasis from theory to practicality' HEC should make compulsory a full year internship after three years of studies or for that matter’ make start-ups a compulsory exercise before graduation. It should act as an agent to build collaboration between engineering and business schools ‘both inter and intra-university’ to instill sense of collectiveness, networking and mercantilist instincts in graduating classes. This startup-year should be regarded as a period of doing things crazy and innovative’ under the patronage of experienced corporate mentors, alumni and university faculty. Pakistan already has crowded specter of research councils, what’s required is an efficient, market-driven umbrella organization that should form the missing link "synapse" to foster integration in between. Research for sake of publication should be replaced by Research for Application, every such institution should be directed by the industry to produce commercially feasible research. To initiate all this' government needs to de-couple the implementation of knowledge-driven innovation-policy from the rest of its bureaucratic skeletal. It needs to form a flexible, innovation-centric, entrepreneur-lead quasi-public autonomous body ‘answerable to the Chief Executive of country only’ to orchestrate, implement and gauge the innovation strategy and to shield start-ups and pilot innovation projects from the bureaucratic, monopolistic and corporatist deathtraps. Pakistan also needs new, innovative and differentiated marketing strategy to attract FDI, knowledge and expertise. The country instead of projecting itself as singular pack rather should allow each major city/industrial park to sell its source of competitiveness to the international community itself by Ads, road-shows. It should also learn to use its Diaspora as liaison that should mediate between foreign and Pakistani firms (building strategic linkages, providing valuable local information, finding suppliers and expertise, inform about tax breaks) to enhance the outsourcing potential of country. It should incentivize its Diaspora return (if not permanent then on regular, rotating basis) to transfer, teach and upgrade vital technical skills ‘needed in country’s public and private sector’ by becoming mentor, consultant, visiting lecturers and investors. Rather then jumping onto countrywide innovation/entrepreneurship reform, such an exercise should rather be launched as pilot project in promising localities, be analyzed in varying conditions and fine-tuned for broader adaptability. For instance Islamabad/Rawalpindi could be selected as beta-ground initially for gauging results of such policy initiative’ helped by Government’s proximity, controlled environment, university cluster, manageable population and availability of basic facilities. Or on other note’ different facets of broader Innovation strategy could be implemented in respective specialized zones for instance IT and Large-scale industry innovation reforms in Karachi, SME reforms in Sialkot, university integration and graduate program remodeling in Lahore, Social entrepreneurship in the outskirts of Faisalabad.