Mr. Zia Ullah Khan Bangash
The stunning advances in various fields of science and technology have had a profound impact on our lives in almost every sphere of our activity, such as health, agriculture, communication, transportation, and defence. These advances have been driven by an ever-growing volume of exciting discoveries, largely emanating from science laboratories in the developed countries, and by their transformation into new products or processes that have flooded world markets. These floods in turn shower vast economic rewards on those nations that have the will and vision to make science and technology the cornerstone of their development programmes.
The world is today sharply divided by a technology boundary that separates the technologically advanced countries from the technologically backward ones. The former have been able to use their scientists and engineers for rapid economic growth, whereas the developing countries are relegated to the role of consumers of technological products. They become almost totally dependent on the advanced countries for most of their needs, be they chemicals, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, transportation equipment, or defence equipment.
It needs to be understood that development is a multifaceted process, and a number of factors must dovetail together before economic growth and progress can occur. In my opinion, the development process must be built on a foundation of high degrees of literacy, quality education and trained human resource at all levels. The challenge is to transform this resource into wealth. In order to unleash their creativity, the Pakistan must expose their youth to a challenging educational environment that teaches them to think and find creative solutions to difficult problems.
The present government places science and technology (ST), including information technology (IT), amongst its highest priorities.In this regard, it will extend it’s full support to the CIU creative Innovative Unit in its endeavours to make the unit a national hub for scientific and technological R&D and innovation.