by Meng Fanrong

 

CHAKWAL, Feb. 6 (Gwadar Pro) - MOU Signing Ceremony for Developing Innovative Chakwal between Riphah Institute of Public Policy and Bin Qutab Foundation was held on Thursday. The signing of the MOU demonstrates that the second-tier cities of Pakistan are increasingly becoming a part of globalization and are on the way to unleash their potential.

 

The purpose of the Innovative Chakwal is a holistic development concept to make society grow and progress, spread awareness, increase economic prosperity and improve health care. The goal is to ship from single development intervention to multiple interventions that lead to the development of society in totality and in the encounter and commencing.

 

Bashir Malik, Chairman of Bin Qutab Foundation stated that policy research is the foundation stone of funding Innovative Chakwal. “The vision of innovative Chakwal is inclusive growth of rural economy combined with technology and industrialization. It is committed to promoting the transformation from poverty-stricken to zero-poverty, from non-industrial areas to industrialized areas, from traditional agriculture to modern mechanized agriculture, from non-export to export-oriented areas, etc.”

 

He emphasized that the Innovative Chakwal is a rural transformation model that can be copied to many other rural areas and towns. “We will serve as a development platform for other stakeholders to express their views in the shared vision of an innovative Chakwal and welcome more participants to invigorate this initiative.”

 

Dr. Rashid Aftab, Director, Riphah Institute of Public Policy underlined that too much attention has been paid to growth at the national level rather than to district growth. Most of the development modes are city-centered as well. Compared with the cities, there is a huge lag in the academic level in rural areas.

 

“Therefore, it is imperative to develop clusters at the district level, and at this stage, we have been focusing on Chakwal, which may eventually be reflected in the national innovation framework and will also make a very tangible contribution to improving innovation factors in Pakistan. ” Rashid Aftab further said that, “technological competition is a key challenge for cluster innovation. By taking into account the relative challenges, these clusters can play an important role in innovation development of the country.”

 

Raja Yassir Humayun Sarfraz, Minister of Higher Education, Punjab Information Technology Board expressed the hope that efforts would be made for the betterment of Chakwal district through the establishment of this platform. He proposed to appoint focal persons from universities to work together, which may be the point where young people can be involved in the long term.