Madad Ali Sindhi, Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training said that the government is working to improve the state of education in the country in order to ensure holistic development and better economic growth. He said that education is the basic right of every child and an important tool for the progress and development of any nation and human resource development through better education is the central pillar of the government’s policy. He said this while addressing as chief guest the interuniversity business plan competition organized by ICCI in collaboration with universities.

Madad Ali Sindhi said that the government has formulated the first ever National Technical and Vocational Education and Training Policy, which aims to cater to the needs of industrial sector by adding value to human capital through imparting requisite training and skills. He lauded the initiative of ICCI for organizing the business plan competition among university students that has provided them a good opportunity to show their innovative business ideas and entrepreneurial skills. He said that his ministry is ready to collaborate with ICCI in various initiatives to upscale the education sector in order to produce trained and skilled manpower for business and industry.

Speaking on the occasion, Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that the purpose of organizing the business plan competition among university students is to provide them a good platform to present their innovative business ideas and get the attention of investors for their commercialization. He stressed that the government should take solid measures to create a conducive environment for innovators and start-ups and focus on fostering a culture of entrepreneurship in the country in order to turn around the economy and achieve sustainable economic growth.

Ahsan Bakhtawari said that due to the falling standard of education in the public schools, the people prefer to send their children to private schools and stressed that improving the education standard of public schools should be the top priority of the government to educate the nation and achieve better development. He said that a model school in Islamabad should be handed over to ICCI to make it a role model for other public schools. He proposed that to improve the standard of education in public schools, a Board of Governors should be constituted and ICCI should also be given representation in it. He further proposed that surplus land of public schools be given on lease rent to generate funds for schools. He hoped that many business ideas presented in the business plan competition would get the attention of investors for commercialization. He resolved that ICCI would continue to organize such events to foster a culture of innovators and start-ups so that many of them could emerge tomorrow’s rising business enterprises.

Faad Waheed, Senior Vice President ICCI said that the industry is facing the shortage of skilled workers to improve industrial productivity and stressed for close academia-industry linkages to produce demand-driven students for industry.

The students of COMSATS, Riphah University, Institute of Space Technology, Capital University of Science & Technology, HITEC University Taxila, National University of Science & Technology, NUST Business School, Quaid-e-Azam University, International Islamic University Islamabad, Shifa Tameer -e-Millat University and Fatima Jinnah Women University participated in the business plan competition. Adnan Mukhtar, Convener, ICCI HEC Committee coordinated with the universities to organize the competition.