Creativity, innovation fundamental driver to achieve progress: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP): Minister for Interior, Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said creativity and innovation were fundamental
drivers of progress and no country could afford to ignore them to achieve the goals.
Addressing the ground breaking ceremony of Centre for
Mathematical Sciences (CMS) here at Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), he said this was a century of innovations and only those nations were progressing well who had equipped themselves with knowledge and technology.
The PIEAS, being run under aegis of Pakistan Atomic Energy
Commission (PAEC) took this initiative towards vision of fulfilling
regional mathematical and computational needs.
Ahsan Iqbal, who is also Minister for Planning Development
and Reforms said, standards of development had changed and now the development of a country depended upon a few things.
“We need to enhance our production capacity and improve our
standard continuously. We need to introduce knowledge and
information revolution in the country and introduce innovations in
all sectors,” he said.
The Minister said Pakistan had huge potential to get place
among top economies of the world for which “We need to conduct
research on modern ground,” adding that the government had already started projects to establish centres of excellence for artificial intelligence, cyber security, big data, cloud computing and robots.
He said digital Pakistan was aimed at equipping the young
generation with modern technology to ensure its effective usage.
“We must put Pakistan on road to prosperity with help of
all areas and segments of the country,” however, it is only possible
when we have competitiveness, stability and continuity in policies.
The Minister said for providing better opportunities to the
youth, the government had increased development budget of the HEC from Rs. 22 billion in 2016-17 to Rs. 35 billion in 2017-18 and
now to Rs. 47 billion. “We plan to take budget of HEC to Rs.
100 billion,” he added.
Ahsan Iqbal said present government has laid foundation of
knowledge economy in the country. The basic of literacy, he said
is computer literacy which would transform entire system based on
modern technology.
He said the Centre was his own brainchild and added
that he was proud to lay foundation of fulfillment of another dream
as mathematics should be our national priority.
He hoped that the Centre would be completed in eighteen
months’ time and would start providing positive synergy required
to beat the gravitational forces hindering the progress of the
country.
Ahsan Iqbal stressed the need of promoting inquisitiveness
in students and suggested that the Centre to be named after
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, the great Muslim mathematician.
He said many other countries expressed their interest in
becoming part of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is
a sign of great change.
In his address, Chairman PAEC, Muhammad Naeem thanked the
Minister and the incumbent government for their continued support
for PIEAS as well as other establishments of PAEC.
He appreciated the contribution of Prof. Ahsan Iqbal in promoting culture of R&D in the country
and termed him as knowledge-friendly person.
Prof. Dr. Nasir Majid Mirza, Rector PIEAS, in his welcome
speech, highlighted need for establishment of CMS and identified
its significance towards macro growth of the country.
He elaborated the strategy for encouraging the students to
collaborate with researchers within the campus and beyond for
building strong ties with the industry that forms the very basis
for ideology behind the CMS.
He emphasized that it would be a great place for students having
interest in Mathematics and its role in the growing research fields such
as Advanced Design, Fluid Structural Analysis, Biology, Medicine, Surface Physics, Social Sciences,
Business, Climate, Finance, Advanced Materials and many other areas of research would be phenomenal.
Executive Director HEC, Prof. Dr. Arshad Ali also shared his views
and emphasized need for promotion of constructive sciences, which lead
to welfare of mankind.
It merits mentioned here that the CMS includes establishment
of a state-of-the-art high performance computing facility which will
enable scientists and engineers from all over Pakistan to carry out
high quality research in their respective fields.
Additionally, proposals for development of high-tech experimental
R&D laboratories related to applied mathematical sciences and computations
are also part of the plan. These services will not only be available
to students and researchers of PIEAS but also to other universities
as well as R&D organizations in public and private sector.
The technical parameters of CMS establishment project aim to
stimulate research, collaboration, and networking in and around
field of Mathematics, to sustain important research directions and
to promote interdisciplinary research.
PIEAS is currently producing quality trained scientists and
engineers to meet requirements of vital national organizations. The
target of producing highly trained applied scientists possessing
expertise in mathematical sciences for national industrial and
strategic needs is expected to be achieved in 8-10 years.
The Centre is expected to develop its own Researcher Exchange
Program and to organize “National Mathematical Sciences Olympiad” on
pattern of International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
On this occasion, Prof. Dr. Shahid Qamar, a faculty member at
Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics at PIEAS gave a
presentation on the CMS.