NUST to launch Innovation Arbitrage Council at the Innovation Leadership Summit 4 August 2010

Pakistan has shown slight improvements on the Global Information Technology Index. This has shown depths in the Pakistani ecosystems to have Innovation as a driver for economic growth. Pakistan has been ranked at 87th position from last year’s 98th on the Global Information Technology Report ranking for 2009-10 of the World Economic Forum.

Realizing the importance of Innovation and how Pakistan can be integrated into the global innovation ecosystem, National University for Science and Technology is organizing an Innovation Leaders’ Summit. The theme of the summit has been proposed Innovation and the trend-setting, which is the first of its kind. The summit will have special participation from the Directors and Senior Economists with the Global Competitiveness Network at the World Economic Forum.

“It is evident that technology is playing a leading role in accelerating economic growth and promoting development and Pakistan should capitalize on its human capital to make innovation as one of the key factors for creating a knowledge-based economy,” said Dr. Arshad Ali, Director General, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences, NUST.

Dr. Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, Director and Senior Economist with the Global Competitiveness Network at the World Economic Forum, where she conducts research and writes on issues pertaining to national competitiveness will be joined at the summit with Dr. Irene Mia, Director and Senior Economist with the Global Competitiveness Network and the co-editor of World Economic Forum’s flagship report on Innovation the Global Information Technology Report series.

The speakers from the World Economic Forum will explore Pakistan's performance in general competitiveness, ICT and technology using the methodological framework on the Global Competitiveness Index and Networked Readiness Index respectively. That would allow the participants to have a better understanding to assess where the country’s potential stands in competitiveness and innovation. This will be followed up by a general discussion which will identify the strengths and weaknesses of Pakistan’s Economy based on the pillars of innovation and competitiveness.

According to Yalman Ansari, faculty member of the NUST Business School, this initiative will go a long way in preparing NUST business graduates for the challenging business world, with innovation being mainstream focus of every organization in today’s business Diaspora.

The summit is expected to be attended by the industry leaders and senior executives from both global and local companies operating in Pakistan.

The participants will also discuss about their business operations and the importance of innovation as the key to attaining sustainable competitive edge. The day-long summit will also include mentoring sessions with students by corporate executives who will share their experiences.

The summit will include a special group of media professionals and journalists representing the National Press Club, responsible for creating content related to ICT and Innovation Economy.

Amir Jahangir

The summit will announce the launching of an advisory council “Innovation Arbitrage Council” (IAC) that will have varied business executives on its panel including Mohsin Iqbal, a distinguished technology business executive who has represented companies like Intel and HP in Asia Pacific, and Amir Jahangir, CEO, Mishal, and Advisor to Stanford Center for Innovation and Communication, Stanford University, who has been honoured as the Young Global Leader 2010 by the World Economic Forum, both who played an instrumental role in crystallizing the idea to form the council on innovation.

Published for the ninth consecutive year with an extensive coverage of 133 economies worldwide, the Global Information Technology Report remains the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the development process and the competitiveness of nations.

In 2009-10, Sweden, Singapore and Denmark have secured the top three places for having the most comprehensive ICT base. The US slipped two places securing fifth position, while China stands at 37 and India at 43, showing an improvement of 9 and 11 places respectively. Pakistan scored well in the sub-indexes of Individual Readiness - mobile cellular tariffs taking 8th position — and residential telephone connection charges at 11th, while under the sub-index of Business Readiness, the country does good in business telephone connection charges and monthly telephone subscription.

A marked improvement has been seen in Pakistan’s capacity for innovation, which has gone up to 56 from 73 in 2008-09. There have been slight improvements in the quality of educational systems, where Pakistan ranks at 99 from 104 in 2008-09, internet access in schools improved by six places scoring 75 and company spending on R&D showed significant improvement taking its score to 80.