Silicon Valley 'Made in Pakistan'

 

Could Silicon Valley be

‘Made in Pakistan’ Palo Alto’ a rustic California county, then commonly known as the valley of Heart’s Delight for its apricots and apples, was transformed by

automotive manufacturing ‘Port Qasim’, agritextile ‘Faisalabad’, education ‘Lahore’, sports and surgical ‘Sialkot’, small engineering

a pipe dream single visionary “Leland Stanford” into theof birth place of cutting edge technologies. Silicon valley ‘as known now’ makes up the 8th largest economy in the world having headquarters of some of the most valuable companies on earth, from Apple, Microsoft, HP, Intel and the list goes on. It has been the benchmark for developed and developing countries when it comes to cluster development for IT, manufacturing and creation of new ideas. And its success has spread the seeds of nearly two dozen valleys across the globe from Cambridge to Bangalore. Physics of cluster development has become the new science and it is gaining pivotal roles in economic policy-making. Though a fascinating venture and high return investment for any country, mere seeding of clusters and their subsequent germination remains a mystique process that requires delicate balance of essential ingredients, blended in natural local recipes, under the right environment by an enterprising cook. Almost all the successful known-clusters conceived an organic birth but calibrated intervention have shown to smoothen and accelerate their evolution.  Then the million dollar question arise: could a country like Pakistan having strategic location, abundant human and natural resources and

‘Gujranwala’, heavy industries ‘ Wah’, These even light weapons manufacturing ‘Landikotal’. are the scattered strengths of this country’ each brewing with enormous potential to reverberate on international scale and this is where the focus should lie. These places have already brewed the desired skill sets, resources and environment to foster respective strengths, with active chambers each having a say in national policy making. Next step is the relationship between industry and university/research for knowledge spill overs, value addition and startups. A single resourceful and vibrant university is enough to trigger the whole transmutation process in its larger locality, the mere existence

sizable diaspora conceive a ‘home grown’ Silicon Valley? answer might be yes and no, depending on which side of glass you are looking at. Ingredients; we might not have the right set of skilled workforce for high tech clusters to emulate Bangalore but thats the point, others recipes don’t work when it comes to cluster development. Our tech-parks fiasco is an evident failure of blinded transplants, what went wrong is different debate but one thing is for certain’ we just can not create Google by swish of our wish because we never produced Larry Page, or we didn’t give him a chance to illustrate. Thus instead of jumping onto an overambitious mode we firstIfneed to capitalize on our existing strengths. we look closely Pakistan has already built pseudo-clusters all across its spine from IT, IT, services ‘Karachi ‘Karachi’, ’,

of Silicon valley is because of the knowledge spill overs by students and researchers of Stanford University. Without naming, Pakistan possess such institutions in business, engineering and applied sciences that if properly stirred and networked could produce a potent mix. What’s needed in each of them is visionary like Frederick Terman, who transformed

 

Stanford from an unknown county college into world class center of thinking and excellence.  T  The he o n e w ho wo u l d In s t i l l i n s t u de nt s corporatist, mercantilist instincts to come up with something radically innovative, a culture of garage experimentation, skills to capitalize networks of their community and alumni. That is how Larry Page would be bred with ideas and resourcefulness of will and vision to translate

EPZs, FTZs, SEZs flourished in this country? reason being over intrusion by the Government and its functionaries that either does not allow competition to flourish or suffocates it if it happens to bud somehow. Solution; make conducive, pro-competitive policies and back out’ only to act as true regulator slash consistency insurer and let the market do fermentation

into a localcould Google. process ‘though takes decades’ beThis fast-forward if someone important right there takes the first step, to set the stage, inspire and lead. We have some brilliant families from Mansha to Dawoods, having marvelous achievements in the corporate world but just hesitant or shy to become the role model, drivers, the Donald Trumps of Pakistan.  An American sophomore dreams of becoming the next Steve Jobs, why cant a Pakistani teenager wishes to become the next Dewan? Mir Shakeel “the local Ted Turner” with his media powerhouse needs to take a lead, to spread this fascination and his fellows should follow him by doing little-but-significant things to brew this youth do-it-new-now obsession.  T  Th h e n c o me s t h e i n tr i g u i n g q u e s t i o n o f environment envir onment;; yes there are problems problems and its not perfect for new businesses but again’ the world isn’t perfect either. Japan has all the technology but no natural resources, Australia has immense natural resources but no manpower, Iran has all the natural resources and manpower but no finance ! Here the argument goes like; we are in the state of war and its not sane to open new businesses. Take a chapter from post-2000 Israel, when the country churned highest number of start-ups in its history just when it was engulfed in a bloody intifida with

Conclusion; turn universities into innovator churners, business successfuls as new heroes, clusters into integrated units and government as effective regulator. . and we are all set to grow ‘not silicon as such’ but an indigenous’ conventionally innovative Sial-Valleys MuhammadShafqat

Palestinians. Do a quick comparison’ we have enormous resources in water, minerals and human, they have none. We have strategic location and trade linkages with neighbors, they exist in total isolation. We have larger and more spread diaspora then theirs and we are not entangled in any indefinite dispute that puts our sheer existence at stake as them. Thus Pakistan is still a blessed and resourceful land, its just that we’ve developed a national habit of complaining and feeling sorry for ourselves. Now even if the Planning Commission comes up with best home grown recipe, it boils down to master chef who’s going to cook it and it hasn’t well.inactiveness The problembut withinGovernment lies notdone in its its hypertrampling over the fertile soil, with its big hooves and heavy weight. How many well-intentioned