1 Prof Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms. Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, Chief of Air Staff and Chairman Board of Governors Air University Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairman HEC and Chancellor Air University Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat Members Board of Governors Deans, Chair Deptts, Faculty, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Assalam-o-Alaikum It is my distinct honour to welcome you all on behalf of the Chief of the Air Staff and all members of Air University on the inauguration ceremony of Aviation City and Aerospace and Aviation Campus of Air University. I see this event as a momentous occasion. Because I believe the success of the concept of Aviation City could bring in large dividends, in times to come, not only for the local community, but for aviation industry as well as the entire country. The concept of Aviation City with Air University Campus as its nucleus has been on the drawing boards for the whole of past two years. After innumerable iterations we have the Academic Plan of the Campus for the next ten years, we have an artistically designed Campus Master Plan which is spread over 50 acres of beautiful land, and we have building plans for Phase-I which includes an academic block, a hostel for boys and a block for faculty accommodation. All along it has been a tremendous team effort between AHQ, PAC and AU. This would be nothing if you compare it with the efforts made by AHQs to ensure financial outlay for Phase-I and in parallel acquisition of land for the entire Aviation City. Allow me to admit that the person whose brainchild was this Aviation City also took the lion’s share of the responsibility and the accompanying stress for seeing that we reach this day. My praise for and gratitude to Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman for his 2 perseverance and tremendous support to see the idea get through the drawing board phase. Ladies and Gentlemen! Realising that the inaugural speech must lay out clearly the underlying concept of the undertaking of this magnitude I wish to elaborate three points. First, why is Aviation City such a novel idea, second, what plans do we have for it, and third, what support we seek to make this concept work for the industry, and contribute to national economy by creating jobs and revenues? For the first point i.e. why is this such a novel idea, I shall draw your attention to both military and civil aviation in the region and in Pakistan. Ladies and gentlemen! Speaking of the prevailing geostrategic situation, the increased involvement of world powers in conflicts in our region and the shifting alliances in our vicinity make peace fragile and stability brittle. More so on our western border. Defense budgets in India and Middle Eastern countries, are rising with governments acquiring modern weapon platforms and next-generation technologies. Indian acquisition of 36 Rafael from France, its upcoming deal with Russia for co-development and production of Sukhoi T-50 stealth fighter aircraft, and plans for purchase of F-16 assembly plant from USA are likely to disturb the delicate equilibrium of forces that we have now. At home, I can say with some certainty, much before we phase out our last vintage fighter aircraft and replace it with JF-17 Thunder we will have to start thinking of the next replacement. JF-17 will probably be the last of the affordable fighter planes. Its coproduction at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex has not only saved the national exchequer billions of dollars but has also contributed significantly to national economy by creating jobs, bringing in modern technology and associated expertise and supporting the local economy of the area . 3 Globally next generation fighter aircraft are far and few and prohibitively expensive and probably not available. Ten years down we will find ourselves in a quandary if we do not set ourselves on a trajectory for rapid transition to new technological base. Allow me to say that time to get going on that path is now. Besides the aircraft the aviation industry would need R&D in weapons, radars, navigation, security systems, Maintenance Repair and Overhauling facilities, Airports and aviation management. Technologically speaking Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, modelling and simulation, Big data analytics, Robotics, Biometrics, additive manufacturing and Internet of Things are going to change the way we designed and produced aircraft to the way we handled passengers and cargo at the airports. Unmanned Aerial Systems, on one hand, continue to revolutionize global communications and on the other hand gravely impact the way war was conducted. One example is face book drone Aquila, which is a project to provide internet to entire globe. In the civil aviation sector World over as in Pakistan consumers are being attracted to air transport due to competitive prices and increased destinations. Supporting nearly 63 million jobs, carrying over three billion passengers, and adding 2.7 trillion $ in global GDP the air transport industry is a driver of the global economy. Aviation is now a key component of global business. Considering growth in industry Boeing projects demand for 41,000 new commercial aircraft and 617,000 pilots over the next 20 years. In Singapore the aviation sector contributes 5.4% to GDP. In Indonesia aviation sector contributes 24 bil $ (2.7% of GDP) to economy and supports 2.6 mil jobs. The Indian aviation industry contributes around 5bn dollars to the country’s GDP and supports over 1.7 million jobs in the country. In Pakistan according to Civil Aviation Authority, in 2016 over 20 million passengers, 400,000 tons of luggage and 14000 tons of mail was moved by air. 4 Based on economic and demographic growth, IATA has projected intra Pakistan air traffic to grow at 9.9% over the next 20 years, more than twice the current 4.1% projected annual world growth rate. These are the prospects for civil aviation industry in Pakistan with rising revenues for airlines. These facts and figures I place before you to draw your attention to the fact that aviation industry has assumed a critical and an indispensable strategic importance for the economic progress, sustainable development and security of an ascending society. Globally this is a growth sector in a time when many sectors of the world’s economies are shrinking. Civilization is progressively becoming more mobile and there is no forecast for that trend to recede. The indigenization and self-support in this critically important industry cannot be achieved without a specialized and competent higher education system. Moreover, with the projected growth in industry, the need for educated and trained personnel expands in every field of aviation, even at home. Let me briefly take up the second point that is what our plans are about Aviation City. Aviation City is being planned to become the nexus of aviation education in our country and region, set standards for aviation education, and become involved with the formulation of national and international policy related to aviation. We plan to create and sustain technology centers of excellence to identify, acquire and develop core technologies to stay abreast with global developments in R&D. Being collocated with Pakistan Aeronautical Complex the Aviation City would provide a unique opportunity for establishing the much-needed Industry-Academia linkage. With the fusion of industry with academia we aspire to be the catalyst in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, eventually leading to a strong national productive capital. Ladies and Gentlemen! Before elaborating plans for Air University Campus in Aviation City, let me share with you that with the generous support of Chairman PAC Kamra, classes of our first MS programme are already underway at a beautiful building in PAC. A batch comprising 6 5 students in Ms Avionics and 8 in MS Aerospace commenced studies on 18th of April this year. The Air University Aerospace and Aviation Campus is modelled on the pattern of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA. 6 Air University wants to position itself to produce highly qualified trained professionals having the necessary skills to meet most of the needs of civil and military aviation industry. We also want to provide expertise and assistance for technology absorption in industry. Our canvas will expand to such diverse areas as aerospace research and development, engineering, Air Traffic Control, Aviation Maintenance, Safety and security, Aircraft Accident Investigation, Meteorological and Weather Research, aviation medicine, and aviation management. And finally we would like to connect our graduates to leading corporate aviation companies, as well as to the air lines throughout the world. Above all we consciously and conscientiously want to reach out to the less privileged regions and segments of our country to ensure uniform development of our society. Our enduring endeavor would be to provide the best education facilities and opportunities to local community. I am certain Aviation City and Air University will become the catalyst in economic development of Attock District. My third point is what help do we seek. We share the spirit of Pakistan Vision 2025 in developing and managing our national human resources to contribute towards national wellbeing. On human resource development through quality education, competitive knowledge economy, entrepreneurship led growth, industry innovation & infrastructure our vision is in line with GoP Vision 2025. We look forward to becoming essential component of Government’s plans on development in Aviation Sector. Second, Higher Education Commission, in its vision for the higher education in Pakistan, plans to set up new centers for advanced studies and research in six fields. We propose that HEC include Aviation as the seventh field for its developmental plans and select Aviation City as its model programme for growth.