Local industry unable to meet local demands: Engr. Najeeb Haroon

Urging the Prime Minister to impose an education emergency in Pakistan, Federal Science and Technology Minister Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has said Pakistan needs to produce at least 25,000 IT graduates and specialists to work globally and earn valuable foreign exchange for the country.
“In a country with 150 million youngsters, we have around 30 million children who don’t attend school, while a vast majority of school-going children are unable to read and write. Under these circumstances, we need to impose an education emergency and focus on producing thousands of IT graduates to fill the gap of IT specialists in the world,” Siddiqui said while speaking at an award distribution ceremony organized by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).
An Artificial Intelligence-based ‘Traffic Management System’ to control traffic lights automatically and a wearable arm sleeve for performance analysis of cricket bowlers with AI-based analytics were among 10 startups awarded Rs10 million each as seed money by the PEC at a ceremony held in Islamabad on Thursday.
Launched by the Pakistan Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Centre (PIEDC) of the PEC, the selection of startups was conducted in two phases, with 153 startups applying, out of which 10 were selected for the awards.
Lauding the Pakistan Engineering Council’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Committee (ICE), Siddiqui praised the chairman and senior management of the PEC and assured the ministry’s full support for initiatives aimed at uplifting the engineering community in Pakistan. He also emphasized revitalizing the engineering education system to produce entrepreneurs and job creators.
Chairman PEC Engr. Najeeb Haroon lamented that Pakistan was importing most of the engineering products, including basic engineering items, as the local industry was unable to meet the demands of the people. “One of the major issues we are facing in the engineering sector is the declining enrollment of students in our engineering and technology universities. We are already facing a dearth of qualified engineers, and it is feared that this will increase in the days to come,” he added.
The PEC chairman said through the seed money project, they were trying to attract young students to come up with innovative ideas and start projects that could provide solutions to our needs and demands.
Maj-Gen Shahid Nazir, DG Special Project Land Information Management System (LIMS) of the SIFC, offered the SIFC’s support to nurture startups, particularly related to agri-tech, and said they could connect innovative startups with farmers who needed mechanized solutions to their issues in agriculture.
Director Pakistan Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Centre (PIEDC) Engr. Dr. Amer Sohail Kashif, said many graduate engineers have innovative and commercially viable solutions for the challenges faced by Pakistan, resulting in entrepreneurship opportunities and job creation. “However, due to the lack of a focused platform for engineering startups, they are unable to flourish as independent entrepreneurs,” he said but added that now the PIEDC was offering interest-free loans as seed money, payable in 7 years in easy installments to the award-winning startups.