High-Technology
Plan Needed
By Omar J. Nasir
Via E-mail
It seems that we have discontinued
Letters to the Editor to avoid criticism of the
government and to be more compliant with its policies.
This has led to a situation where newspapers can
only be utilized to propagate government views,
and opposing views cannot be expressed - a very
Pakistani solution!!
New political and economic situations have arisen,
where Pakistan is lagging behind India in very
vital technologies. These technologies are: 1)
Information Technology 2) Computers and communications
and 3) Semiconductors, yet the Government has
made no national plans to catch up. The leadership
is missing.
I remember in 1974, when India carried out a small
nuclear test, the entire Pakistan Government was
put on the defensive - from Z.A. Bhutto to Mr.
Munir Ahmed Khan, Chairman, PAEC, and people were
assured that appropriate response would be forthcoming.
Ten years later the response was developed and
fourteen years later nuclear devices were tested.
Today the challenges are strategic, and responses
take a longer time to develop. A semiconductor
plant would take 2-3 years to build and computer
and communication industry would take 5-10 years
to build and mature. Pakistan does not manufacure
a single computer nor does it have a single foundry.
This situation needs to be changed as neighboring
India is galloping at a brisk pace in the field
of technology. Intel and Microsoft have announced
a $1 billion investment each and more companies
are on their way. Pakistan must energize the High
Technology Sector and put it on “Red Alert”
to grab High Technology opportunities. A master
plan for high technology development should be
made and approved by both Federal and Provincial
Governments with funding mechanisms from private
and public sectors. Appropriate Response means
planning ahead. In addition Pakistan should solicit
High Technology Investments from US companies
like AMD, IBM, Motorola, Siemens, ALCATEL as well
as Korean, Japanese and Chinese companies to set
up joint ventures and also to participate in direct
foreign investment. High technology parks need
to be created in Lahore, Karachi, Pindi, Peshawer/Haripur-Hazara,
etc.
Ten to twenty US companies, along with European
and East Asian companies will constitute a reasonable
response. Pakistani companies should also be formed
and both foreign and local entrepreneurship encouraged.
The semiconductor and computer/communication industry
is so big that market capitalization of $1 trillion
would not be saturating. (Silicon Valley has a
market capitalization of $1.1 trillion). $100
billion would be needed to produce a $1 trillion
market capitalization. Spending could be spread
for five years with $20 billion per year including
a foreign exchange component of $5-10 billion
per year and the rest in local currency.
US News and World Report of December 5. 2005 reported
on the shadow economy run out of Dubai as follows:
“This global shadow economy ....has annual
revenues of up to $2 trillion, according to UN
estimates, larger than the gross domestic product
of all, but a handful of countries”
Pakistan must encourage foreign investments and
create a banking system of numbered accounts similar
to Swiss and Austrian systems, with complete privacy
to bring in illegal capital, but without illegal
controls. The problem with “black money”
has been that the wrong people would control the
enterprise. This can be avoided, if capital is
invested only in National Bank- a State owned
institution, which can then issue Industrial bonds
and stock funds. In this way, power is not given
to the “crooks”, but their ill-gotten
wealth is utilized for national good.
Pakistan and Pakistani Americans should not sit
idly as Indians and others make enormous profits.
Let us challenge them and produce products and
technologies which would improve our way of living
and create new opportunities for years to come.
The common man in Pakistan is best served when
there is industrial development and progress.
A double digit GNP growth rate is very much possible.
We should lead and not follow.
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