The information technology and science and technology ministries on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding for design, development, large scale production and marketing of renewable energy and electronic products.
STEDEC Technology Commercialization Corporation of Pakistan, Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET), National Institute of Electronics (NIE) and Telecom Industry of Pakistan (TIP), Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) signed the memorandum.
STEDEC Managing Director SK Mohyuddin, TIP MD Nadeem Ahmed Khan, PCRET Director General Khalid Islam and NIE Director General Zafar Iqbal Khokhar signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations.
While Ministry of Science and Technology Secretary Akhlaq Ahmad Tarrar and Ministry of Information Technology Additional Secretary Muhammad Ejaz Mian witnessed the signing ceremony. Speaking on the occasion, Tarrar said the Ministry of Science and Technology and its R&D organizations have mandate to serve the national industry through developing products, technologies, processes, import substitutes, value-addition especially for export and by providing technical assistance to SMEs.
The secretary said these R&D organisations have good number of highly qualified, trained and experienced researchers as well as state-of-the-art and well equipped laboratories for undertaking world class research, however, their contribution to national industrial growth through indigenisation of local technologies has not been very impressive. He said the reason for this unimposing performance has been weak industrial linkages, trust deficit of industry on public sector organizations, development of non-demand driven products, lack of entrepreneurship development facilities and expertise.
The ministry, while realising these gaps, has established the commercialisation cell to develop linkages between R&D organisations, academia and industry for sharing of resources to carry out demand driven R&D, offering solutions to various industrial problems, entrepreneurship development and commercialization of IP of these organisations, he added. Tarrar said under the scope of this MoU, PCRET, NIE and STEDEC (MoST) and TIP (MoIT) shall jointly undertake design and development, large scale production and marketing of Renewable Energy and Electronic Products in the country and the signing parties will ensure optimal utilization of all available resources for mutual benefit and for the ultimate aim of introducing and promoting cost effective indigenous products.
He expressed confidence that the MoU will herald a new era of long term relationship between the two ministries, which will be cornerstone of initiatives aimed at self reliance through indigenization. The secretary praised the efforts of MoST Commercialization Cell for materializing the MoU to start large scale production and marketing of indigenous technologies.
MoIT Additional Secretary Muhammad Ejaz Mian also spoke on the occasion and hoped that the MoU will go a long way in large scale production of renewable energy and electronic products in the country.
Under the MoU, NIE and PCRET will design, develop and produce prototype of demand driven products and pass on the complete technical know-how to TIP, while STEDEC will undertake all financial and commercial aspects on behalf of PCRET and NIE. TIP will be responsible for mass scale production and marketing of products designed and developed by NIE and PCRET.
A joint Working Group, having representation of all the four parties as well as of MoST and MoIT will select the products (already designed or to be designed) and prepare workable operational model and SOPs for taking the products from initial stage to marketing level.
