The IT Strategy…

Building a Knowledge and
Innovation Society


Prof.Atta
-
ur
-
Rahman,
FRS

Federal Minister/Chairman, Higher
Education Commission


President, Pakistan Academy of
Sciences





There is a Light at the
End of the Tunnel

“EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY”

Why Science and Technology?


Science

can

help

feed

the

hungry,

heal

the

sick,

contribute

to

poverty

alleviation,

protect

the

environment,

provide

dignity

of

labour,

and

unleash

the

creative

talents

of

our

youth

by

fostering

innovation

and

entrepreneurship,

resulting

in

a

satisfying

and

joyful

life




The Magic of Science

•
Biotechnology



•
Information Technology



•
Material Sciences



•
Pharmaceuticals

•
Agricultural Biotechnology

•
Health Biotechnology

•
CERN

•
E
-
Commerce

•
Nanotechnology

•
Bucky Balls

•
Ageing

•
Medicinal Plants

NANOTECHNOLOGY

MATERIAL SCIENCES

MOLECULAR MEDICINE

INFORMATIO
N
TECHNOLOGY

VISION


Socio
-
economic development is no longer
dependent on natural resources
(eg.Japan, European countries)


KNOWLEDGE

has now become the main
driving force of world economies and
hence the basis of socio
-
economic
development


INDUSTRIALIZATION
is the key to high
GDP growth (through innovation /
production of high value
-
added goods
(engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, IT,
Biotechnology, etc.)

Overarching Approach

Simultaneous
Bi
-
Modal Approach

Required

–
Bottom
-
Up

Basic Health, Primary Education, Water ….

–
Top
-
Down

Higher Education

Emphasis on Science & Technology

Industrial Linkages

Imperatives for Socio
-
Economic
Development

Socio
-
Economic

Development

Central Role of Higher Education/

Technology Development

In National Plans
--

VISION!!!!

Linkages Between Applied Research

& Industrial Development

Govt.Facilitating Policies

Quality /Relevance

Of Education/Research

STANDARDS!!

Budgetary Allocations

(Min.2% of GNP)
-

The
-
catch
-
up game!

Real Wealth
--

Our Children
-
---
with a population of 156
million, about a 100 million below the age
of 25, Pakistan is blessed with a huge pool
of creativity


Challenge

is to empower them with
quality education and skills
-
---
and
provide them opportunities to contribute to
the process of socio
-
economic
development

Strategy for

Economic Development
–

HE,S&T



160

19.6


Saudi Arabia



OIC Countries



230

8.1


Austria

260

10.2


Belgium

Knowledge Based Economies

GDP

(Billion US$)

Population

(Million)

Country

Impact of just one institution
----
MIT

MIT graduates and faculty have founded
4000 companies

Employ: 1.1 million people

Annual Sales: $232 billion

Collectively these companies are the 24th
largest economy in the World!

Pakistan
---
A Promising Program



Higher Education budget increased 2000%!!!


Full support from
President

of Pakistan


A real beginning after 50 years of lip service

HEC Plan of Action


ACCESS / QUALITY / RELEVANCE


Faculty Development

Infrastructure

(Free Access to Literature
Free Access to Sophisticated Instruments,
Technology Assisted Learning)

Focused Support in Key Areas

Linkages to the Economy

Quality Assurance

STRATEGY

1)
BASIC SCIENCES



Physics,Chemistry,Mathematics,Biology)

2)
APPLIED SCIENCES


(Engineering, Agricultural sciences,
Biotecnology, Information Technology,
Pharmaceuticals, New Materials,
Communications, Renewable Energy)


3)
SOCIAL SCIENCES

4)
ECONOMICS, FINANCE, MANAGEMENT


5)
LINKAGES WITH INDUSTRY


6)
EMPHASIS ON “K
-
ECONOMY”
---
HIGH
TECH INDUSTRY!!

Attracting the Brightest!

Change in Salary Structures
-
--
under “Tenure
Track” system salaries of Professors raised to 4
times of Federal Ministers in government!


Research Productivity Allowance
-
---
based on
Cumulative Impact Factors during the preceding
year


Reversing the Brain Drain
-
---
under “Foreign
Faculty Hiring Program” 270 eminent ex
-
patriot/other scientists attracted to return to
Pakistan (salaries upto US$ 4,000 per month)

Attracting the Brightest!


Research Funding

(upto US$ 600,000
per international linkage program)

Guaranteed Jobs

to fresh Ph.D.s with
higher salary structures under tenure track
system

75% Reduction of
Income Tax

for all
academics


Training the Brightest!

Massive Foreign scholarship programs

initiated
---
500
-
1000 students being sent
abroad annually to top universities in
Europe, USA, China


Indigenous Ph.D. programs
-
--
expansion of
the existing Ph.D. output to 1500 per year


Huge Local Scholarship Programs for
Undergraduate level

studies initiated
---
Rs.1
Billion to be spent!


Training the Brightest!

Local Ph.D.s being offered
opportunities for
postdoctoral training

in top foreign institutions


Linkages

being established with top
Western Institutions
---
50 with British
Universities, many others



US$ 150 million
Fulbright program

for
MS/Ph.D. level training in tier 1
universities with USA
----
largest in world





New Initiatives

Fulbright scholarship support program (US $
150 million)

Post
-
doctoral program Phase
-
II (700)

Foreign University Linkage program

HEC
-
BC Linkage program (50 linkages)

New Engineering Universities

New Law Universities

Using Technology to Leap
-
Frog!

Pakistan Educational Research
Network


Digital Library Program PAKSAT 1
(Pakistan’s Educational Satellite)


Pakistan’s Video
-
conferencing Network



And an environment that
stimulates creativity and
welcomes advances in the use of
Information Technology

IT Education

s and Eabling
enviroment

High capacity, reliable and
accessible communications


The IT Strategy…


Laws and enabling
environment

Service to the
Citizens

822 cities on the Internet

2002

Iran

Afghanistan

India

China



From 40 to 1,000
Cities on Optical
Fibre (2000
-
2005)

SDH/PDH
(525/622 Mb/s)
backbone being
upgraded to
DWDM

10 Gb/s

Spread of Internet Services in Cities & Towns of
Pakistan

Information Technology

1050

2000

580

29

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Year

Internet user growth

Internet users
-
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1,000,000
Jan-95
Jan-96
Jan-97
Jan-98
Jan-99
Jan-00
Jan-01
Jan-02
Internet users
Start point

Today

June 2000:

130,000


Oct

2004
: 6,800,000

Actual users
more than 6
Million!

Dial up

Plummeting costs….

Cost /E1
-
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
Mar-00
May-00
Jul-00
Sep-00
Nov-00
Jan-01
Mar-01
May-01
US $
Cost /E1
Start point

Today

June 2000:

US$ 87,000
/E1


August 2001:

US$ 6,000






October 2004 : US$ 3,800






Now US$ 2,000/2 Mb/s !

Bandwidth Available

Operative Data bandwidth
-
50
100
150
200
250
300
Jan-96
Jul-96
Jan-97
Jul-97
Jan-98
Jul-98
Jan-99
Jul-99
Jan-00
Jul-00
Jan-01
Jul-01
Jan-02
Mb/s
Operative Data bandwidth
today

Start point

August 2000:

32 Mb/s

Mar 2002:

265 Mb/s







Oct
2004
: 1200 Mb/s







Mobile Telephony
---
the Effect of
one Good Decision!

1992
-
2000, little Growth(300,000 phones)

2001
,
CPP regime

brought in

Network expansion of 3 million phone
-
lines ordered in 2002 ! Mobilink, U
-
fone

Explosive growth continues till today (over
24 million phones today
—
hottest sector of
the economy)



PAKSAT 1
–
A major opportunity

PAKSAT 1


A MAJOR COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE
WITH 34 TRANSPONDERS


CAPABLE OF CARRYING 250 TV
CHANNELS!!( 4 New TV Channels for
Education!)


BACKBONE FOR PERN (Pakistan
Educational Researh Network)



Paksat 1

Ku Band

C
-
Band

PERN
Pakistan Education & Research
Network

Jamshoro

Tandojam

Nawab Shah

D.I.Khan

Topi

Khairpur

Khuzdar

Abbottabad

Core Network Nodes 03

Total Universities 56

(16 OFS, 22 DXX,

17 DRS, 1 VSAT)

Pakistan Education and
Research Network

Information highway exclusively for
universities

Promote collaborative research and the
sharing of domain knowledge

Platform for launching aggressive distance
education programs

Platform for Digital Library service for all
universities

Virtual University


4 Digital Satellite (PAKSAT) TV Channels
for content delivery (License for 2 granted)

Satellite Earth Station

2 Recording Studios

Potential for providing high quality training
in remote areas of Pakistan

Distance Learning

MIT Open Courseware

University of California Television

E
-
Books Program

Virtual University


Digital Library

22,000 full text journals
—
nation
-
wide,free
-
of
-
charge!!!

Abstracts of 20,000 journals

One Window Search Engine

Web of Science, Scifinder Scholar,
EMBASE, IEEE, Chem/Biol.Abstracts etc.

International volunteer lecture program
through Paksat 1

Video Lecturing Facility

Using Technology to Overcome

–
Faculty Shortage

–
Cost of Travel

Nation
-
wide Lecture Series
---
sharing
Faculty!!

International Lecture Series

International Video
-
lecturing
Program

High quality video
-
conferencing equipment
under installation

Series of international lectures (nation
-
wide) by Nobel Laureates and top
professors from leading universities in
USA, Europe, Japan etc. from November
2006

Core Groups in different disciplines formed
to organise lectures (Maths, Physics,
Chemistry, Biology etc.)

Establishment of New
Engineering, Science &
Technology Universities
(UESTP)




Partner Countries

(Coordinating Universities)

China

France

Sweden

Germany

Austria

South Korea

Netherlands

Japan

Italy

LONG LIVE CHINA PAKISTAN
FRIENDSHIP!!!


China
-
Pakistan Friendship is
deeper than the deepest
oceans
---
and higher than the
tallest mountains
---

中巴友谊长存！

谢谢！

Thanks