Creativity, Innovation 'engines Of Competitiveness' To Win Global Market Share: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Apr, 2025) Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Monday described creativity and innovation as the “engines of competitiveness,” essential for any country seeking its rightful share in global markets, while highlighting the rapid pace of technological advancements worldwide.

“Today, the pace of innovation is faster than ever before due to knowledge and technological explosions, and we need to embrace them to compete globally,” he said while addressing the winners of Season 1 of the Innovation Fund under the URAAN Innovation Hub initiative, in connection with World Creativity and Innovation Day.

He stressed the need for fast learning and swift adoption of changes in the realms of creativity and technology to keep pace with global growth and development.

The minister said that Pakistan played a leadership role in the region during the first 50 years after its creation, but in the past 20–25 years, it had lagged behind in its development journey due to frequent disruptions.

Now, he said that one of the biggest challenges for the country was to regain the development momentum it once enjoyed, and was globally acknowledged for, so that the nation could emerge as a proud and successful country by 2047, when both Pakistan and India would be celebrating 100 years of independence.

Ahsan Iqbal identified four principles that developed nations have consistently followed including peace and harmony, stability, policy consistency, and continuous reforms.

Recalling the PML-N government’s Vision 2010 and Vision 2025 frameworks, which, he said, could not be fully realized due to regime changes, the minister said now Pakistan could no longer afford such disruptions.

He said that the incumbent government had launched the ‘URAAN PAKISTAN’ initiative to transform the national economy and achieve a sustainable growth trajectory focused on increased exports.

He urged the professionals, especially young entrepreneurs, to harness their skills to produce world-class products and promote them effectively in international markets.

The minister said that the establishment of the ‘Innovation Fund’ aimed to support young individuals with promising business ideas but limited financial resources, enabling them to scale up their ventures and contribute to foreign exchange earnings.

Increasing the country’s exports, he said, is one of the biggest challenges and a necessity to free Pakistan from dependence on foreign loans, whether from international lenders or friendly countries.

He called for achieving self-reliance by promoting the ‘Made in Pakistan’ label as a symbol of quality, capable of securing a fair share in global markets.

He vowed to increase Pakistan’s exports from the current $32 billion to $100 billion over the next 8 to 10 years, which he believed would generate an unstoppable and irreversible momentum for national development and growth.

The minister also highlighted the importance of restoring national confidence, reminding the audience that Pakistanis were a talented, innovative, hardworking, and creative people - traits that formed the country’s true brand.

Expressing confidence that Pakistan would become a $1 trillion economy by 2035, the minister said that the government would convene a national workshop on the ‘creative economy’ to develop a roadmap for the creative industries and support their role in national development.