Govt committed to promote science & technology for the progress, says PM

MANG (Haripur): Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated Pak-Austria Fachhochschule Institute of Applied Sciences & Technology (PAF-IAST) in Mang, Haripur on Thursday.
The Institute is one of the initiatives of Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which envisages for creating highly credible technical education infrastructure both at tertiary and hi-tech industry levels.
The concept underlying the PAF-IAST program is to contribute towards the development of a broad-based balanced industrial economy in Pakistan. It seeks to promote expansion and enhancement of higher education quality in engineering, science and technology, with a parallel focus on development of hi-tech industry in Pakistan.
The ceremony was also attended by the Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Farman, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehmood Khan, Minister Finance Taimur Saleem Jhagra and others.
TLTP adds: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the government is committed to promoting science and technology for progress in the country.
The Prime Minister said, “We are moving in the right direction with a focus on education, science, technology and knowledge economy.” He expressed the confidence that the institute will prove to be a major step in promotion of science and technology in the country.
He said that he wants to spend money recovered from corrupt persons on the education sector. The federal government is willing to utilise resources on promoting education in the country, he added.
The Premier urged for choosing a path to transform Pakistanis into a great nation and Allah Almighty definitely gives success to those who honestly pursue a target. He said that Pakistanis are not willing to become slaves and wanting to make their own way.
Communism is disastrous for the nation and the mental barrier for the slavery of the West should be broken.
Imran Khan said that Pakistan has capabilities to advance into a development phase by changing the way of thinking. It is the need of time for stepping forward in the field of science and technology for opening a new era of development in Pakistan, he said.
He thanked China and Austria for assisting the authorities in Pakistan as the establishment of the institute was an important project of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government.
Imran Khan said the government is going to collaborate with five Chinese and three Austrian universities for technological advancement in Pakistan. He said in the second phase of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), special economic zones will be established and industry will be relocated in Pakistan.
Earlier in a tweet, the Chairman CPEC Authority Asim Saleem Bajwa said the project reflects vision of state-of-the-art science and technology education infrastructure and broad-based industrial and knowledge-based economy. He expressed hopes that the institute will become an exemplary centre for the education of science and technology. He said that the federal government is committed to promoting science and technology-based education in the country.
The institution has been established with the collaboration of Austria for promoting the education of artificial intelligence (AI), engineering, food technology and various other disciplines.
Meanwhile, in an effort to encourage legal business with neighbouring countries, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday accorded approval to set up 18 trade markets along Pakistan’s borders with Afghanistan and Iran.
Presiding over a high-level meeting here on Thursday, the Prime Minister gave approval to establish 12 markets along Pak-Afghan border and six markets along Pak-Iran border.
The meeting decided to take effective measures to eliminate the menace of smuggling. Briefing the meeting, an official said that the border markets will be made functional by February, 2021.
Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and other high officials were in attendance in the meeting.
Earlier on May 14, Chairing a meeting to review the measures the government had taken to check smuggling and overpricing of essential items in the country, Prime Minister Imran Khan had stated no compromise would be made in action against smuggling.
Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar, Food Security and Research Minister Syed Fakhar Imam, Adviser to the PM on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and relevant officials were in attendance in the meeting.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has congratulated Yoshihide Suga for being elected as the new prime minister of Japan.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Khan said that he looks forward to working with his Japanese counterpart to further strengthen friendship and cooperation between both the countries.
“Congratulations to Excellency Yoshihide Suga on his election as the new Prime Minister of Japan. I look forward to working with him to further strengthen Pakistan-Japan friendship and our increasing cooperation,” tweeted Prime Minister Khan.
Japan’s Yoshihide Suga was voted prime minister by parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, becoming the country’s first new leader in nearly eight years, as he readied a “continuity cabinet” expected to keep about half of predecessor Shinzo Abe’s lineup.
Suga, 71, Abe’s longtime right-hand man, has pledged to pursue many of Abe’s programmes, including his signature “Abenomics” economic strategy, and to forge ahead with structural reforms, including deregulation and streamlining bureaucracy.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving premier, resigned because of ill health after nearly eight years in office. Suga served under him in the pivotal post of chief cabinet secretary.