Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday urged the United States to support Pakistan in training of Human Resources (HR) to implement Vision 2025.
Ahsan said this in a meeting with Evan Ryan, USA Assistant Secretary Education and Cultural Affairs, who called on him at Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform.
“The government is keen to benefit from the strength of top US universities to train its strategic human resources for transforming Pakistan into a knowledge economy,” said a statement issued, “”Pakistan-USA Knowledge Corridor” can become a strong bridge between the two countries.”
He highlighted the efforts to promote primary and higher education particularly girls education in the country and said that USA can partner positively to make these efforts a success.
He said Pak-USA Knowledge Corridor has been recognized as an important initiative in the joint statement of Pakistan and USA during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to USA last year.
“Now challenge lies in operating it at the earliest”, he mentioned.
The minister said that Pakistan needs 10,000 PhD scholars in the next 10 years to cater to the growing needs of expanding faculty in the higher education sector.
Pak-USA Knowledge Corridor would fulfil the increased demand of PhDs scholars in Pakistan.
He proposed for development of group of academicians in USA that should make Pakistan the subject of their research.
He also highlighted the characteristics of joint Science Foundation to finance scholars from both sides, proposed in USA-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue.