ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is exploring developing the country’s very ownDARPA-like agency. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) isa United States agency that develops the latest technologies for themilitary.
Pakistani DARPA agency will work on somewhat the same principle by sharingthe Defence Research and Development (R&D) budget with the civilian sectorto develop top-notch tech.
In this regard, the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has beenholding meetings with several stakeholders for a year now. In its latestmeeting, CDWP announced to launch a project at a small scale to analyse thefeasibility of DARPA-like institution in Pakistan.
The aim behind this initiative is to exploit new opportunities by stayingwithin the budget. Under this program, the defence R&D budget will beinvested smartly in technologies that will benefit both the military andthe civilian sector. The military will work with third parties and civilianstartups to promote and support advanced technologies by the rightinvestment.
CDWP approved a small project to carry out the feasibility to create aDARPA-like entity in Pakistan. The feasibility takes a practical approachto identifying 8-10 pieces of dual-use technologies developed throughdefence R&D and create investable propositions for privatesector/industrialists to consider investing in.
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This practical approach towards identifying 8-10 pieces of dual-usetechnologies will help identify improvements in the whole system as well.More variables will be taken into consideration after checking the progressof this initial initiative so Defense Procurement Budget process could bemodified for more civilian involvement.
Athar Osama link>,the source behind the news, added in the social media post;
We are still a long way away but Imagine the impact of putting in even 1%of Defense Procurement Budget (that’s PKR 2 Billion a year!) into localcontractors, technology providers, and startups to create technology forthe military and having intellectual property available at a fraction ofthe cost to create global companies.
Pakistan might see its own Silicon Valley soon if everything goes rightwith this project, Osama added.