SWABI: The panelists at an industrial exhibition on Thursday linked economic growth and prosperity with industrial development and contribution of both industry and academia to it.

The two days event, ‘Industrial Open House Fair,’ was organised at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology here.

The speakers said the government should strengthen academia-industry interaction by providing financial support to academia to produce students according to the requirements of local industry and in light of the emerging industrial and technological trends in the developed world.

Former chief minister and incumbent president of Society for the Promotion of Engineering Sciences and Technology in Pakistan (SOPREST) Shamsul Mulk was the chief guest on the occasion, while Haroon Waheed, human resource department head at the Fatima Group of Industries, was the guest of honour on the occasion.

Over 40 multinational and national companies participated in the event.

Around 25 companies earlier visited the institute and 15 more are scheduled to follow suit next week.Engineer Shamsul Mulk said if Pakistan wanted to join the developed world, it would have to develop a ‘culture of research’ to look at the needs of the society.

“If we want to make progress, we will have to develop indigenous research which is result oriented and helps in boosting the efforts to make this country progressive and prosperous,” he said.

The former chief minister said he expected that the younger generation would accept this challenge. He said the GIK Institute wanted to serve as a research and development centre for national industry and provide knowledge input to solve their problems.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2015

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