ISLAMABAD, 11 February 2016: An event entitled “Celebrating Success” was organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in collaboration with Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry to celebrate the remarkable success of the Global Cleantech Innovation Program for SMEs and Startups (GCIP). Cleantech is a global competition aimed at promotion of Innovations in the area of Clean Technologies. This competition is simultaneously carried out in six countries i.e. Armenia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey and South Africa around the world.
The main aim of this competition is to foster innovations in Renewable energy, Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency and Waste to Energy in SMEs and Startup companies. This program involves extensive mentoring, training, access to investors and opportunities to showcase their innovations. Cleantech is basically a business accelerator program aimed at converting the Cleantech ideas into viable businesses and support them to develop their innovative technologies into full-fledged market-ready products.
Speaking at the occasion, the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Climate Chang eShoaib Mir stressed the importance of technology, in particular clean technology, in this highly globalized world and the efforts made by the government for the promotion and advancement of technology and industrialization in Pakistan. Mr.Atif Ikram Sheikh, President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) highlighted the initiatives taken by the Chamber, in collaboration with UNIDO, to support SMEs and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on youth and females. He was optimistic that such initiatives would promote clean technologies in SMEs and enable them to compete more effectively in the market. He expressed keen interest to work with UNIDO on such initiatives in the future.
The UNIDO Representative to Pakistan, Mr. Esam Alqararah shared UNIDO’s vision on energy and environment and the efforts UNIDO is making to promote innovation in clean technologies in Pakistan. He also narrated the main achievements and honors of the Cleantech program and described its main facts. Noteworthy among them was the fact that Pakistan has got a highest number of applicants in the world. ICCI also distributed certificates among the winners, and runner ups and also to the Most Promising Woman-Lead Team.The ceremony was attended by more than 80high-ranking officials and dignitaries,cleantech partners and stakeholders, international donor agencies, and representatives from government institutions, industries, a large number of media persons and also the GCIP-Pakistan 2014 and 2015 Alumni.-PR
