President Arif Alvi on Thursday called for providing an enabling environment for youth to nurture their intellectual abilities and benefit from their innovative ideas for the country’s prosperity. He said that Pakistani youth were blessed with enormous potential, brilliant minds, and bright ideas, however, they needed an appropriate platform to transform their ideas into competitive and quality products to increase the country’s exports and reduce imports. The president gave these remarks while addressing the season finale of the National Idea Bank (NIB)’ Third Edition, organized by the National University of Technology (NUTECH) in collaboration with ASPIRE Pakistan, at Aiwan-e-Sadr. The event was attended by members of the academia and business community. Highlighting the importance of innovative and emerging technologies, the president said that he was a staunch supporter of promoting a knowledge-based economy and stressed the need for talent hunting through forums like the NIB for socio-economic development. He appreciated the role being played by NIB as a repository of innovative ideas that would serve as a catalyst for the country’s transformation to a brighter and prosperous future. The president said that innovative and technological solutions needed to be timely adopted for the country’s development. He remarked that he had been advocating for internet voting for granting the right to vote to overseas Pakistanis as well as using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Pakistan’s electoral process. The president also voiced concern over the elite capture of the system, which only safeguarded the interests of the elite and failed to address vital socio-economic challenges, particularly educating over 26 million out-of-school children. He also stressed the need to focus on issues such as malnutrition and stunting as well as neonatal mortality rate. The president criticized the existing world order, based on vested interests that failed to stop the ongoing Israeli atrocities in Gaza. Chairperson ASPIRE, Hassan Syed, briefed the audience about NIB as a platform for fostering innovation, creativity and collaboration to bring together leading minds, entrepreneurs and visionaries to explore ground-breaking ideas and initiatives aimed at shaping the future of Pakistan. Rector NUTECH, Lt Gen (R) Moazzam Ejaz, said that NIB was providing an excellent platform for youth to transform their innovative ideas into successful products. He added that the support of universities, markets, businesses and local industries was essential for providing youth with a launching pad and mentorship. Project Director, Shahzana Memon, apprised that since NIB’s inception, it had promoted more than 6000 business ideas and consequently, over 40 local start-ups had been established. She informed that in the 3rd Season of NIB, almost 2400 ideas were received out of which 67 ideas were selected as the national-level winners. The president also awarded recognition shields to the participants who came up with top-15 novel ideas in the NIB Season III finale.