Exploiting space technology to benefit economy

Islamabad:There's a huge potential and scope for commercialising space technology in Pakistan that needed to be exploited, said Dr Adil Sutlan, dean, Air University.

Dr Sultan was addressing a roundtable discussion on ‘India-Pakistan space programmes: future prospects and challenges’ organised here by Institute of Regional Studies. Dr Sultan said that the two-pronged approach of greater awareness at the mass level and prioritisation of space technology by making it a part of national strategy would provide a much-needed boost to Pakistan’s space programme.

He regretted that Pakistan’s space programme launched much earlier than India’s, lost its direction primarily because of inherent security problems and wars with India.

He said that on the contrary, India with the support of US was able to develop a robust space programme adding that bilateral agreements between India and US such as the Basic Exchange Cooperation Agreement (BECA) and Space Situational Agreement (SSA) took India’s space programme to new heights. Learning from the successful commercialisation of space technology around the world, Dr Sultan stressed that Pakistan needed to invest in the space economy through public-private partnerships.