In this new race, economic competition among nations will be less on physical assets and more on knowledge assets. Pakistan must take urgent and substantive steps to build its ecosystem and knowledge culture to leapfrog ahead. What needs to be done? In my course on Marketing Strategies for Emerging Economies, Summer 2019 students of the Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan were asked to come up with recommendations. This is an example of some of the best work submitted.

1. NEED FOR STATE SPONSORED
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION
CENTER IN PAKISTAN
Syed Muneeb Alam
Instructor: Moazzam Hussain
Institute of Business Management
Marketing for Emerging Economies
Summer, 2019

2. AboutTechnology Innovation Centers
(TIC)
■ Technology InnovationCenters (TIC) around the globe are the source of innovation
and are coming up with innovative solutions to meet the needs of todays world.
■ They both state sponsored and private entities.
■ Besides funding they have their own revenue streams.
■ These institutes are not just about science, technology and innovation but they work
towards meaningful innovation solving real problems.
■ These are the spaces where people can discover and experience new ways of thinking
and learning, observing, and doing work that impact people and reach mutual goals.

3. TOPTICsAroundThe Globe
■ ETRI (Electronics andTelecommunications Research Institute) – South Korea
■ TNO (Nederlandse Organisatie voorToegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek) –
Netherlands
■ ITRI (IndustrialTechnology Research Institute) –Taiwan
■ AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science andTechnology) – Japan
■ Fraunhofer Gesellschaft - Germany

4. HowTICsAre ContributingToTheir
National Economies?
■ Technology innovation centers have number of patents and intellectual property
rights in their names.
■ They pass on their technologies and innovations to different organizations and earns
billions of dollars in royalties annually.
■ For example, Audi has been using “AutonomousValet Parking” for their Self Driving
cars which has been developed by ETRI – South Korea.
■ On each sale of self driving car with AutonomousValet Parking technology,Audi has
to pay ETRI a percentage in terms of royalty.
■ Wonder what these dollars could do to our balance of trade!

5. Making Lives Easier
■ TIC’s innovations are not just innovations. In fact they are focused on solving problems
in the market.
■ For example, ETRI – South Korea, came up with GenieTutor, a dialogue based English
language learning program.
■ Similarly, they introduce Speech-Enabled Navigation System for cars.
■ TNO – Netherlands has built solar roads which is solving the electricity needs of
thousands of people.
■ AIST – Japan came up with a “Photon Microscope” capable of, even with extremely
weak light which is unobservable by conventional optical microscopes observing a
clear color image.

6. Creating an ImpactAroundTheWorld
■ ETRI – South Korea revolutionised the world when it introduced 4G LTE Advanced for
mobile communications in 2011.
■ All the telecom operators around the globe are using ETRI’s 4G LTEAdvanced
technology.
■ Currently, USA and China are at the brink of war over 5G technology.
■ Main concern for USA over China’s 5G is that it will be able to have access of data of US
citizens, organizations and the government itself.

7. CurrentTICs in Pakistan
■ Ignite Pakistan
■ NUSTTechnology Incubation Centre
■ National Science andTechnology Park
■ Facebook Innovation Lab at LUMS
■ Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) at Institute of SpaceTechnology
■ Pakistan Scientific andTechnological Information Center (PASTIC)

8. Need For NewTIC in Pakistan
■ CurrentTICs don’t have systematic plans for innovations.
■ PublicTICs have strong government and local administration influence.
■ PrivateTICs are not ready to invest their money in Pakistan due to current situations.
■ There are no annual budgets set for theseTICs and also, they aren’t sustainable.
■ Failed to collaborate with internationalTICs.
■ Bad governance and management issues

9. NewTIC Focusing on Information
CommunicationTechnology (ICT)
■ Pakistan hasn’t achieved anything in the field of information communication
technology since its independence.
■ Current and future era is of information communication technology.
■ It includes mobile and satellite communications, broadcasting, digital media, etc
■ There is huge market potential and higher revenues in terms of royalties.
■ Advanced nations like USA, Japan, South Korea and Finland are at the forefront of the
world due to their strong researches and innovations in ICT.

10. Autonomous Body
■ This newTIC should be a fully autonomous body without any interference from
government.
■ It should have its own management hired on contractual basis without any
controversies.
■ There should be powerful board of directors elected from the country and abroad to
minimize influence of any one person.
■ Performance audit should be done at the end of each fiscal year to review the
performance of the board and management.
■ People with low performance should be fired immediately.

11. Allocation of Budget
■ Government should allocate some good budget in annual fiscal budgets each year for
this newTIC.
■ This will help the center in its operation and conducting new researches.
■ These budgets should be focused on making this newTIC sustainable so in few years,
we won’t have to allocate budgets for this center.
■ Instead, it will help us in earning valuable foreign exchange.
■ Any income earned in 10 years should be invested back in the centers to expand and
dive into bigger projects.

12. Bringing Back Overseas Pakistanis
■ Pakistanis who have been working abroad in reputed research institutes and
organizations like NASA and MIT should be the first priority while hiring.
■ It will allow us to replicate models of successful innovation centers in the world.
■ They should be compensated accordingly so they work with full dedication.

13. CollaborationWith Other Centers
■ Collaboration with other innovation centers will help us to gain expertise from them.
■ Government should use its relationships and links with other countries like China and
Japan to help us in these collaborations.
■ We could also send our team to their institutes to learn their models and then
implement them here.

14. Domestic and International Patents
■ Technologies developed should be immediately forwarded for patent not only in
Pakistan but abroad as well.
■ This will help us earn much needed royalties of these patents when some
organizations uses and sell these technologies.
■ In 2014, ETRI – South Korea had more patents in USA than any American institute or
center.
■ In 2016, ETRI – South Korea earned more than $300 Billion dollars from just its patent
of Advanced 4G LTE.This is about the size of Pakistan’s total GDP.

15. Educating Future Generation
■ Universities students should be trained at this institute by the professionals.
■ They should be involved in real innovative projects to provide real time learning.
■ Visits should be arranged for schools and colleges to generate interest of future
generation in the field of InformationCommunicationTechnology (ICT).
■ Innovation contests should be held each year to provide opportunity for the students
to present their valuable innovative ideas to our center.

16. SYED MUNEEBALAM
syedmuneebalam@gmail.com
■ Work Experience:
– Digital Accounts Manager - Black Ape Media (June, 2010 – Present)
– Social Media Specialist – Exide Pakistan (January, 2018 –June, 2019)
– Marketing Executive – Mandi Express (February, 2017 – June, 2017)
■ Academic Qualifications
– MBA (Marketing) – Institute of Business Management, 2019
– BBA (Marketing) – KarachiUniversity Business School, 2016
– Intermediate - Bahria College Karsaz, 2012
– GCE O Level -The Metropolitan Academy, 2010