President urges youth to avail opportunities through CPEC

Says the project will bring not only economic prosperity but also academic incentives

GILGIT: President Mamnoon Hussain has urged the youth of culturally rich Gilgit-Baltistan region to convert their cultural heritage into educational opportunities which came from the Great Silk Route in the past and now offered by China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

He was addressing the 8th Convocation of Karakorum International University where he appreciated the establishment of CPEC Cell in the university to take full advantage from this mega and allied projects.

He termed the establishment of the CPEC cell as a positive development that would help explore the different dimensions of this remarkable project and reap the maximum benefits from the opportunities offered by related projects keeping in view the local conditions.

The president emphasised that CPEC would not only bring economic prosperity in this region but would also open up new academic avenues for the youth.

He urged the university especially its CPEC Cell to build international contacts so that effective strategy could be made to take maximum advantage from these emerging opportunities.

He hoped that KIU would perform valuable services in this sector adding that if the said cell introduced some new courses to make CPEC studies more effective and comprehensive then its utilisation would not remain confined to this university only.

He also directed the administration to keep him updated about the activities of this cell so that he could provide his continuous feedback.

President Mamnoon also lauded that the department of modern languages in the university had started functioning. He said that linguistic research was not an easy task and after the launch of CPEC, the importance of this department had increased manifold.

He further hoped that attention would be paid on the new linguistic experiments so that the people travelling on this corridor could be saved from the trouble of learning new languages and they could communicate with the people of this region without any difficulty. He also noted that Urdu also came into existence as a result of such experiments.

The President also pointed out that the world today was facing many complex challenges that also affected Pakistan as well as the region.

He stressed that in such conditions, it was imperative that collective and national approach should be adopted to overcome these challenges paving the way for national progress and development.

He advised the students to also keep an eye on the changes occurring around the world. President Mamnoon highlighted that like other tourist destinations of the world, this region also offered many cultural artifacts and tourists buy them with great passion.

He said that if the manufacturing of such products could be industrialised then it could revolutionise the economy of this region.

On the occasion, the President also inaugurated the new building of the Faculty of Education at the university.       He also awarded degrees and gold medals among the graduates who secured prominent positions.

Moreover, he congratulated the students on the successful completion of their educational career and wished them success in their practical life.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2017.