Commenting on the Draft Science, Technology & Innovation Strategy, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the President Dairy Science Park, Prof M Subhan Qureshi suggested to the provincial government to establish Science and Technology Park Peshawar. The following suggestions were submitted in the interest of the people of the Region:
A logical rationale has been given in the draft strategy covering capacity building; achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations; Policy implementation at sub-national levels; to exploit the potential of various sectors for general political objective and difference in STI policies based on difference in regional resource-base availability. The strategic plan needs to be tailored with this rationale.
The three major objectives covering: i) Strengthening Governance and Management System of the province; ii) Enhancing the capacity and capability of the STI human resource and; iii) Improving scientific and technological infrastructure, are directed towards good governance in S&T organizations in the province. These must be integrated into the draft strategy.
Key recommendations:
The key recommendations start with increase in the expenditures. It will be useless to increase the expenditure without changing the directions of expenditures. And direction of expenditures may be changed in line of the rationale and major objectives referred under para-1 and 2. For determining direction of expenditures we will have to accommodate opinion of stakeholders across the Academia, Industry, Society and Government as per Quadruple Model of Good Governance. To materialize this idea, it is suggested that an Advocacy Forum may be established at S&T Directorate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Advocacy Forum-S&T KP
The Forum will be established at S&T Directorate KP to accommodate concerns of the stakeholders in the development process in ten S&T-Line-Sectors, namely, Health, Agriculture, Forest, Pharmaceuticals, Renewable Energy, Environment, Water, Minerals, Biotechnology and Bio-waste Management. One expert member each will be selected from academia, industry and government in each sector. One elected representative from provincial legislative assembly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a representative of KP Chamber of Commerce and Industries will be included in the Forum. The Forum will elect their Chairman and Secretary for a period of one year. For special tasks S&T-KP-Working Groups would be constituted comprising members and experts from the public and private sectors in the relevant disciplines.
The Forum will work as an Advisory body for the Council for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Science Technology and Innovations.
The Forum will work guide the line departments in Good Governance under the Quadruple Helix Model of Academia-Industry-Soceity-Government Nexus; prioritizing the sectoral issues, revisiting their current mandates for accommodating the issue, recommending projects for annual development programs, overseeing the project implementation status and launching mega projects under international assistance and public-private partnership.
The Forum will assist in creating opportunities for decent employment in the ten line-sectors, for the outgoing graduates of higher educational institutions of the province and those coming from outside the province and the country. This activity will be supported through an Endowment Fund of Rs.5 billion, to be utilized for generation of decent employment models through academia industry interaction. KP Chamber of Commerce and Industry, KP Board of Investment and Trade and SMEDA will participate in this joint venture. ORIC Offices of the provincial universities. For this purpose a Science and Technology Park Peshawar (STPP) will be launched in line with recommendations submitted to FAO-UN under KP Livestock Action Plan (Qureshi MS, 2019).
Science and Technology Park Peshawar (STPP)
| S No | Activity | Impact | |
| Strengthening institutions and capacity development | |||
| 1 | Notification of Managing Board, Institutional Units and essential committees by the Executive Director and launching of new website. Timeline: 1 February, 2021 | Institutional Units of STPP would be established at the line departments/universities for each S&T line-sector (Health, Agriculture, Forest, Pharmaceuticals, Renewable Energy, Environment, Water, Minerals, Biotechnology and Bio-waste Management). | |
| 2 | First meeting of the Managing Board STPP, review of the current status and formulation of a work plan and allocation of funds for the first three months. Timeline: 1 March, 2021 | Institutional Units would become functional at various public sector organizations associated with STPP. Shared authority and responsibility would create a sense of ownership among the stakeholders. | |
| 3 | The public sector organizations would be provided Endowment Funds and Development Grants for facilitating staff to transform their ideas into feasible actions. The Incentive package would be circulated among the staff. Timeline: 1 April, 2021 | The staff of the public service organizations would be motivated to work with enhanced efficiency. The workers would be shareholder in the income generating activities. Sufficient and uninterrupted fund would be available for utilization of the manpower and other assets. | |
| Release of Funds and Registration of Assets of corporate partners | |||
| 4 | Release of non-lapsable Development Grant (Rs.5000 million) and Endowment Fund (Rs.5000 million) to STPP. Timeline: 1 May, 2021 | Funds would be available for operation of the STPP. | |
| 5 | Release of funds to the Institutional Units (IUs), within the amount allocated by the Managing Board. Timeline: 1 June, 2021 | Funds are available at Institutional Units within the public sector organizations. | |
| 6 | Registration and freezing of assets of corporate partners for a period of 5 years, to the tune as joint ventures, equal to the amount allocated by govt/donors. STPP would invest for launching approved feasible activities and STPP would be shareholder of 20% of the net profit, to be determined through joint monitoring. Timeline: 1 July, 2021 | The Endowment Fund of Rs.5000 would be supplemented gradually, by assets of corporate partners. | |
| Entrepreneurship Development | |||
| 7 | Review of the feasible entrepreneurship models by the Technical Committees and recommendation for field trials under the IUs. Timeline: 1 August, 2021 | Entrepreneurship models would be available for field testing. | |
| 8 | Postgraduate research projects for responding to the issues emerging during the field trials. Timeline: 1 September, 2021 | Academic solutions would be available for addressing the issues in entrepreneurship development. Continuous; expected three projects per quarter. | |
| 9 | Evaluation of Entrepreneurship models for technical, social and marketing feasibility. Approval of successful models by Technical Committees or sub-committee and publication as “Activity-Entrepreneurship Model – STPP” on website of STPP. Timeline: 1 October, 2021 | Entrepreneurship models would be available for replication. | |
| 10 | Preparing terms and conditions for funding of entrepreneurship models, by a subcommittee of Technical Committee. The models must be non-invasive, meeting ethical standards and having financial viability. STPP would provide technical and marketing support through its partner organizations. STPP Endowment Fund would finance the activity and would be shareholder as 20% of the net profit. Terms and conditions would be approval by the Managing Board LTP. Timeline: 1 November, 2021 | Terms and conditions would be available for funding entrepreneurship models. | |
| 11 | Calling applications for funding entrepreneurship models, scrutiny, interviews and approval by a subcommittee of Technical Committee and release of funds. Timeline: 1 September, 2021 | Entrepreneurship models are funded. month; expected models, 10 per quarter, to increase further onwards | |
| 12 | The availability of entrepreneurship models would be reviewed and missing links would be identified for developing further models. Timeline: 1 December, 2021 | Farming, products processing and services network would be available, each one generating decent employment for young graduates and quality foods to the consumers. An enabling environment would be available for further investment. 25,000 models expected in 5 years. | |
| Expected Overall Impact | |||
| 13 | · Good governance would be demonstrated in management of provincial natural resource-base. · Capacity of public sector organizations would have been improved and fine-tuned to support the entrepreneurship models development on sustainable basis. Their visible interaction with the private sector would be available. · A system would have been in place for delivery of specialized services to the stakeholders across the ten S&T line-sectors. · Endowment Fund and investment package would be made available at partner institutions of STPP. · Public-private partnership would be in place for investment in private lands and farms, etc, by STPP and sharing profit by 80:20 ratio to the private partner and STPP Endowment Fund, respectively. · Time line: 31-12-2022 | · STPP would have become a beacon of hope for the young men and women. · Motivated young graduates in life sciences, engineering, business and social sciences would be joining STPP for their career development and transformation of ideas into actions to serve the society. · An enabling environment would be available to generate at 25,000 decent employments in various sector across the value chains, related to production, processes, services, quality control and marketing. · At the end of the year 2021, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be able to generate direct decent employments to the tune of 18000, each one earning about Rs.50,000 per month and employing five more persons each, valuing about Rs. 5098 billion. A fraction of 10% may be injected into Export Market, valuing Rs.510 billion. |
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