The federal government will establish 12 state-of-the-art Knowledge Parks across Pakistan which will serve as Industry-Academia Liaison Centers (IALC).
The project named ‘Establishment of Knowledge Park in Pakistan’ will be executed in two phases with an estimated cost of Rs. 939.359 million for Phase-1 of the project, according to official documents available with Propakistani.
As per the documents, these proposed parks will be established in major cities across the country. Under Phase-I, Knowledge Parks will be established in four provincial capital including Karachi, Quetta, Lahore, and Peshawar. Upon successful completion, this network will be expanded to Hyderabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Muzaffarabad, and Gilgit under Phase II of this project.
The project is being sponsored by the Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives and will be executed by Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). The Project aims at creating an ecosystem to encourage innovation, collaboration, job creation, and close interaction between stakeholders to share experiences and excel for more.
This ecosystem will provide opportunities for industry and academia to optimize technology education delivery, develop interfaces to initiate startups, and deepen partnerships for joint research and product developments. Local universities in the designated cities will be preferred for establishing these Knowledge Parks. This will provide them opportunities to partner with leading IT/ITeS companies as well universities around the world.
The same shall provide a fostering environment furthering the needed ease of doing business. Under the Industry-Academia collaboration, 6,000 IT undergraduates and graduates will be provided in-demand industry-recommended training. Moreover, 500 faculty members will also be trained on in-demand technologies.
Key features of this project will be as follows: