- UNDP-Pakistan launches report, authored by Dr Adil Najam, Dr Faisal Bari
Minister for Interior Affairs Ahsan Iqbal has said that the government has increased development budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) from Rs 13 billion in 2013 to Rs 47 billion for providing better opportunities to the youth.
Addressing a launching ceremony of the National Human Development Report – unleashing the potential of a young Pakistan, he said that the development budget of the commission was Rs 22 billion in 2016-17, Rs 35 billion in 2017-18 and now it has been increased to Rs 47 billion.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP-Pakistan) has launched the report which has been authored by Dr Adil Najam and Dr Faisal Bari. The report focuses on the youth as a critical force for shaping human development, because Pakistan currently has the largest generation of young people ever in its history, with about two-thirds of the total population under 30 years of age.
“Future of Pakistan is linked with its youth. We have to train the youth as per our future requirements. Our government is making concerted efforts to make the youth an asset of the country,” Ahsan said. The youth have a crucial role in economic development, he said. “We are digitally empowering the youth through provision of laptops to ensure their contribution in process of progress and prosperity.”
He said that Pakistan was included in countries where youth was in majority and the government’s utmost priority was to make an investment in youth for ensuring peace and prosperity. He said that the government has laid the foundation of a knowledge economy. The basic of literacy was computer literacy which would transform entire system based on modern technology, he said.
Ahsan, who is also Minister for Planning Development and Reforms said that standards of the development had changed and now the development of a country depended upon a few things. “We need to enhance our production capacity and improve our standard continuously. We need to introduce knowledge and information revolution and introduce innovations in all sectors,” he said.
The minister said that Pakistan had huge potential to get place among top economies of the world. “We need to conduct research on modern ground,” he said, adding that the government had already started projects to establish centres of excellence for artificial intelligence, cyber security, data, cloud computing and robots.
He said that the digital Pakistan was aimed at equipping the young generation with modern technology to ensure its effective usage. “We must put Pakistan on road to prosperity with the help of all areas and segments of the country,” he said. However, “it is only possible when we have competitiveness and stability,” he said. He said that the government had already taken effective initiatives to establish universities’ campuses at every district to provide quality education at local level.
