Socio-economic: Pakistan aims to have 10,000 PhD scholars by 2025

ISLAMABAD:

The Planning, Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday stressed that over a decade from now Pakistan needs to have at least 10,000 PhDs.

To assist students in this regard the government also launched a programme — Technology Innovation Fund — that provides grants to researchers and encourages the youth to innovate.

Talking at the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in a conference, “National Human Resource Development Plan (2015-2025) - Visualizing Socio-Economic Growth of Pakistan,” he said knowledge is the main driving force of a country.

Iqbal said the youth was the most valuable asset of the country and should be provided with higher education.

The objective of the conference was to identify key areas where human resource development is necessary in order to cater to future needs.

The conference was attended by experts who were divided into 12 working groups.

Their recommendations will be made part of HEC’s overall strategy and priority will be given to those fields and disciplines which have direct impact on country’s socio-economic development.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2015.