What is the role of technology parks in national development?

TECHNOLOGICAL PARKS AND THEIR ROLE IN NATION'S DEVELOPMENTDefinition of a Science and Technology Park according to the International Association of Science and Technology Parks (IASP):

"A Science and Technology Park is an organization managed by specialized professionals, whose main aim is to increase the wealth of its community by promoting the culture of innovation and the competitiveness of its associated businesses and knowledge-based institutions."

There are many approximate synonyms for "Science Park", including Research Park, Technology Park, techno polis and biomedical park.

Technological parks can, and have in the past, played an important role in technological capacity building. They do this by bringing together in the same location, facilities that include, manufacturing, high level training, technology and business incubation, financing institutions, standardization and calibration laboratories, testing and analytical facilities, and industrial services.

The advent of science and technology parks in recent decades with the objective to minimize the gap between economic sectors and the academia and research community. The success attributed to these parks in many countries has played a significant role in scientific and economic development in many knowledge based societies and specialized employment. The thinking behind the creation of these parks in many countries has been very similar. The parks were established with the objective to provide a physical environment needed for development and flourishing of scientific innovations, reduce investment in infra-structure, efficient time management and reduced costs associated with communication among participating elements including institutions, companies and organizations and they created synergies. It promotes the technology transfer to those firms established within the park. Convenient and lower cost education for students. Opportunities to obtain technical and scientific degrees on a past time basis.

The development of technology parks is needed a wide spread phenomenon in today's technology - inspired era. This concept and all the issues related to its development assume increasing importance which gives the fact that, it has unique potentials in accelerating the growth of nations' economy. In order to succeed in today's knowledge - based economy and to realize its vision of becoming a developed nation, it must develop the requisite infra-structure and info-structure. It is widely believed that technological parks have unique role in transforming a nation into knowledge-based economic since its establishment align closely with the key drivers of knowledge-based economy i.e. innovation, commercialization of ideas, entrepreneurship and university-industry-government smart partnership.

Besides building area, these parks offer a number of shared resources, such as uninterruptible power supply, telecommunications hubs, reception and security, management offices, restaurants, bank offices, convention center, parking, internal transportation, entertainment and sports facilities, etc. In this way, the park offers considerable advantages to hosted companies, by reducing overhead costs with these facilities.

This clearly shows that technological parks play a great and important role in the development of a country.

The world's first techno-park started in early 1950s. There are over 140 techno-parks in North America. The big North American technological parks have experienced on enormous impact regarding economic growth, qualified jobs creation, exports and modern firms' competitiveness development.

Asia is the world's next leading international theme park market. It includes Japan, Korea, Honk Kong, Taiwan and a rapidly changing China.

The Research Triangle Park is one of the biggest parks in United Stated which crowds together 130 organizations, 99 of which are directly related to research and development purpose. Its more than 39.500 employers are daily incorporated to their jobs. An area of 8 2 miles and their wages reach the figure of 1-2 thousand million US Dollars.

In Pakistan we have two techno-parks. One is in Lahore and the other one is in Islamabad. The technological parks in Karachi are under consideration as this is the biggest industrial city of Pakistan.

We should create awareness on the potential role that technological parks can play not only in accelerating Pakistan's industrialization programmes but also in transforming the country in knowledge-based economy.