Six months ago, I last spoke my mind on the need for SIFC, and the uniqueness and awkwardness of its challenges, particularly in the technology space. I posed four questions. Since then, I chose to be quiet. The strategy was apt; better than being called a naysayer or being labeled a troublemaker when others were proclaiming milk and honey.
The promise of $100 billion from abroad is as elusive as then. The good old Doctor previously leading the Ministry of Science & Technology, who promised a few billion here and there within a few weeks is also gone, despite the dollars nowhere to be seen. I hold my breath and bridle my hand here, because political resurrection frequently happens in policy and political spheres of my country, and the risk of repercussions is real.
Some of those who have recently returned to power have found a new explanation for the dearly awaited, but still absent the $100 billion. Labeling the lack of ‘expected’ interest from the Middle East as weak heart to heart connection between Pakistan and the new Arab leadership is wrong. It was always business and never personal for them.
Labeling the lack of ‘expected’ interest from the Middle East as weak heart to heart connection between Pakistan and the new Arab leadership is wrong. It was always business and never personal for them.
The SIFC surely must have been briskly working on its own ideas and timelines. Amongst the many, one of the biggest challenge the investors, us, them, and Pakistan faces today is a sheer absence of reliable data in many areas. Here, one is not talking about the data our ‘baabus’ and their system churns out regularly under the thick fog of governance. Some of what they produce may have put the master blenders of Scotland to shame in the past. But it is no longer working. They and their system are exactly the challenge that needs addressing.
Reliable data and our ability to analyze it, extract trends, draw conclusions and make empirically sound decisions is the missing ingredient in the recipe we are experimenting with once again. Our foreign friends are not taking the bait this time either. Political stability is a clear necessity for this too. In these circumstances, our success, despite the promises we hear, is the distant outlier and the black swan event rather than the other way around, sadly.
In response to the various and nefarious challenges we all face today, there is something a few of us have come up with, at NUST. We call it a Virtual National Business Park; a first of its kind in Pakistan. It is different than all that we have tried so far along. It has a different agenda! But, how? And, why?
The 18th Amendment, per some, has further clustered and flustered any efforts for policy uniformity. Sadly, this must be the foundation or the ultimate objective of tech implementations. My thoughts on the need for SIFC in this context are not much of a secret either. If we cannot or would not do much here due to either political sensitivities or other exigencies, why not then create a virtual membership driven benefit and support model rather than creating small policy silos, and brick and mortar structures across provinces? Government, regulators, and taxmen can integrate with it. Thus, if the federal government adopts this virtual business park, the reach of SIFC’s initiatives and their effectiveness can be transmitted directly from Gilgit to Gwadar or from Chitral to Chhor, in real time.
The 18th Amendment, per some, has further clustered and flustered any efforts for policy uniformity. Sadly, this must be the foundation or the ultimate objective of tech implementations.
Let this also be a showcase of the much famed but otherwise impossible one-window support for foreign investments. Furthermore, it can be a biennale and a platform for empowering and enabling local entrepreneurship ecosystem by connecting and regulating foreign Venture Capitalists (VCs) or connecting it with Pakistan Startup Fund, or for that reason raising new initiatives altogether. And, lastly, support it with a dedicated legal and regulatory remedial system. It can then at some later stage also take control or ownership of physical spaces for locating specific industry across the country. In this, we can effectively uplift distant areas and regenerate others.
The second feature of the park is the formation of goal centric clusters. This is where academia steps in as a direct player, working with the industry, accessing real- time data from the public sector for analytics, research, and collaboration opportunities. Why do we need academia here? They, after all, aren't the sharpest of knives in Pakistan’s scabbard, some may argue from amongst them.
Well, for firsts, they are significant beneficiaries of various public sector grants. It is good to get more value for your money when you are already at it. Secondly, and more importantly, they have the expertise and time that our public and private sectors so dearly lack today. Furthermore, you want them to stand on their feet rather than await grants forever. Exactly, at this node we can also converge the significant efforts and strides of commercial players.
Lastly, but most importantly, this is where you engage the lately disgruntled and disoriented young men and women in national problem solving. And in the process, we upskill them for the local market and their own growth. Through this we also channel them into areas where there is a dire need to pour in resources and effort. The quality of the outputs and outcomes, for some, may be an instant challenge. But Rome was not built in a day. And it is a good time as any other to start today.
Though we at NUST Business School call it our very own business park, and can do it on our own alone, there’s space for more. We want to bring in our colleagues and allies from academia, industry, and entrepreneurs. Let this be our chance to fix the unfixable through and contribute towards solutions where the traditional problem solvers have failed. Then there is more to the idea of the virtual business park and where we have reached with it. Let that be for another day and another forum. In there we will have everything but a policy merry-go-round.
We do not want it there, or do we?