Interactive webinar on “Digital Transformation and Innovation Landscape Beyond Pandemic – An Asian Perspective” was held on 25th November 2020. During the session, esteemed speakers from Pakistan, China, Norway, Malaysia and Spain delivered talks on their respective topics which were followed by questions and answers on each topic.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Mohammad Ali Mohammad, Director Research, National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) talked about how Asia is rising as the innovation leader of the world and the rich digital ecosystem developing in this region. He emphasized the need to increase R&D spending to promote innovation specially for the South Asian countries which are currently lagging behind east Asian countries.
Building up on Dr. Ali’s talk, Dr. Herbert Chen, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Tsinghua Science Park (TusPark), talked about the level of development in different parts of the Asia, the need to learn from countries which are doing better than others and the role of STPs in integrating innovation ecosystems across Asia through international linkages.
Mr. Hakan Ozan, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Digital Design, Norway took the audience through different phases of economic development that led to increasing importance and recognition of innovation and eventually to the development of Innovation Management system. He talked about International Standard ISO 56002, its implementation and the innovation process.
Dr. Ahmed Razman from Putra Science Park, discussed the devastating effects of the pandemic on Malaysian economy and the role played by government, universities and companies in coming up with innovative technologies to counter problems posed by COVID-19 such as stimulus package and drone, robot and remote connectivity based solutions. Companies have hence become more innovative and have found new ways of doing business.
Building up on Dr. Razman’s talk, Mr. Josep Miquel Pique, Executive President, La Salla Technova Barcelona, explained how the pandemic has accelerated digitization by forcing us to give up physical interactions. He talked about the 5 laws post COVID-19 that include managing and storing information via cloud, maintaining professional relationships through digital channels, developing smart cities, smart homes and smart industries, using new technologies such as VR / AR, 3D printing and detecting, tracking and controlling the virus. This will help us transform the economy and society at large.
National Science & Technology Park (NSTP) will continue to arrange similar events as part of Innovate Pakistan Platform.
IASP Webinar
Dr. Mohammad Ali Mohammad, Director Research, NUST gave a brief overview about NSTP and spoke about the key issues affecting the Asia-Pacific region during “AOI & STP conversations: Asia-Pacific” at IASP Virtual Conference 2020. The session was moderated by Dr. Herbert Chen, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Tsinghua Science Park (TusPark) and IASP and other speakers included Janekrishna Kanatharana from Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation – EECi Thailand and Shigekata Mizuno from Kyoto Research Park, Japan.
During the conference, the unique selling points as well as histories of each of the STPs were presented. The panelists discussed how their STPs integrated in the overall science and technology ecosystems of their cities and regions, as well as their future plans. A round of discussions was also held on the aspects that made Asian STPs different from STPs in North America and Europe. The opportunities and challenges for future growth were also shared and the participants extended invitations to each other for visiting their respective STPs.
GEI Webinar
NSTP represented Pakistan at the 2020 Community of International Science-Industry Parks (CISIP) Forum, organized by Great Wall Enterprise Institute (GEI), China on 2nd December 2020. CISIP is a professional and practical platform for global science and technology parks, incubators and innovation organizations to share experience and achieve high-quality, sustainable growth. The Forum was attended by Science and Technology officials of foreign embassies in China and representatives from international organizations such as UNIDO, international experts / scholars and Thailand, Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary based science parks. Speaking on occasion, Mr. Adnan Ejaz, Director NSTP commented about the high-tech entities at NSTP, suggested how global science parks contribute towards development and how cooperation of science parks can cultivate enterprises.
The ways of active engagement of the STPs to further development, anti-epidemic, cooperation of science parks and enterprise cultivation were also exchanged during the forum. The Forum facilitated the STPs to initiate collaborations and exchange any ideas or suggestions about cooperating with GEI or the Chinese digital companies who participated during the Forum.
The author is the Program Manager Hatch 8 at National Science & Technology Park (NSTP), NUST. She can be reached at hatch8@nstp.pk.
