Minister Ahsan Iqbal visits St John’s Innovation Centre Cambridge, discusses collaboration for industrial growth

London: Cambridge (January 11, 2023) Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Professor Ahsan Iqbal visited St John’s Innovation Centre and Judge Business School at Cambridge University, UK today.

During the visit, the Minister had a productive meeting with Managing Director David Gill, Professor Stelios Kavadias, Vice-Dean for Faculty and Director of the EMBA Programme and with Michael Kitson, Assistant Director of the Centre for Business Research.

During the meeting, Minister Planning & Development Mr Iqbal shared Pakistan’s plan to develop a world class innovation centre related to StartUps, entrepreneurship and tech economy.

The Minister said, ” Government of Pakistan outlined E5 agenda (Exports, e-Pakistan, Energy, Environment & Equity) to transform its economy into a globally competitive economy with exports serving as a major engine of growth “.

The Minister stated that  Pakistan has a huge youth bulge and equipping them with  quality skills and education is top priority of  the government.

Minister also remarked that the Pakistan-UK Knowledge Corridor was established  in 2016 to develop strong linkages between the top universities of Pakistan and the UK . He further added that promoting academia-industry linkage for competitive industrial growth is a priority under E5 agenda. Pakistan wants to benefit from the experience of Cambridge University in this area, he added.

The Planning Minister stated that Pakistan is one of most vulnerable countries affected by Climate Change.  He stressed that to develop resilient and adaptive infrastructure,  the Government of Pakistan is exploring avenues  to promote public private partnership and social entrepreneurship to complement its investment from the public sector.