A delegation of China Special Economic Zone Think Tank from Shenzhen led by Director of Development Research Center of Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government, Wu Sikang called on Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman.
The purpose of the meeting was to explore avenues of collaboration in the field of technical and vocational education, particularly in intelligent manufacturing, intelligent education systems and robotics, said a press release on Friday.
The minister welcomed the delegation and appreciated the interest of China in the development of the region. He said that Government of Pakistan appreciates the One Belt One Road vision of President Xi Jinping and proclaimed that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Project envisions progress and development of not only both countries but also the entire region.
“We look up to China as our most sincere friend and highly acknowledge its contribution in the development of energy and communications infrastructure in the country”, he added.
Mr. Wu Sikang said that Shenzhen is the center of commercial and industrial activity and one of the two biggest financial hubs in China.
He proposed that the academic and business community of Shenzhen would be more than happy to share the experiences and expertise in high end technology with their counterparts in Pakistan. ‘We will share a detailed plan for training in robotics with the Ministry soon’, he added.
Baligh welcomed the proposal and said that we wanted our vocational training programmes to be more extensive and equip students in specialized technical skills that could be used in high end industrial production. ‘In the coming years we would like to see our human resource well trained and skilled in line with the new industrial trends so that it provide sustainable support to CPEC Projects and a lot could be learned from Chinese expertise in industrial automation’, he said.
The minister shared with delegation that the new education policy also envisions smart schools in the country that make use of information and communications technology (ICT), and train students for intelligent manufacturing. He said that Ministry is also in the process of launching Open Educational Resources (OER) which will ensure easy availability and accessibility of educational resources to teachers and students through technology.