Pakistan next emerging economy of Asia: Ahsan Iqbal

SUKKUR: Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Reform on Tuesday said that Pakistan was the next emerging economy of Asia. He said this while interacting with the faculty and students of U.S-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCAS-W) at the Senate Hall of Mehran University of Engineering & Technology (MUET), Jamshoro.

He said through applied research and technology, the solutions to the challenges faced by Pakistan could be sought. He said that Pakistan was one of the vulnerable countries facing serious shortage of water and climate change but the solutions of these vulnerabilities were in the science, engineering, and technology.

He said that USPCAS-W was one of the Centers for Advanced Studies (CAS) Higher Education Project of the federal government funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Pakistan, which would provide economical and energy efficient solution to the government for the water and energy crisis.

He said researchers of this center would seek the solutions of water, agriculture, and climate change related issues. He said Pakistan, in the past, had missed various opportunities of economic growth and development due to political destabilisation, mistrust among the federating units and lagged behind in science and technology, but now the country was the next emerging economy in Asia by maintaining the most rapid economic growth in the region.

Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal, while referring to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor said that the CPEC was a fusion of multiple developments in the global, regional, bilateral and domestic contexts. The ultimate objective of the CPEC, he said, was peace, prosperity, and well-being of the people of the two countries, the region and the world.

He said that the development of infrastructure would open the new vistas of development in the country and in this connection; Hyderabad-Karachi motorway would convert the both cities into the twin cities while the construction work on the Hyderabad-Sukkur motorway, Sukkur-Multan motorway, and other routes would be started very soon.

He said the government was establishing campuses in each and every district of the country to produce efficient human resources. While answering the questions of the students related to the water accord of 1991 and renewable energy sources, Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that Pakistan had the history of mistrust among the federating units and therefore the solidarity among the units was very much necessary to take the decision in the national common interest.

He said that everyone had to respect the 1991 accord because it was unanimously agreed but the units disagreed politically to form the consensus on new water reservoirs on the other side.

He further said that respective research and development organisations such as SUPARCO and Survey of Pakistan were being directed for sharing big data with researchers so that they could be facilitated and entrepreneurs were also being encouraged to invest in the country by developing software and mobile applications (Apps). 

The federal minister also visited the new building of USPCAS-W. Syed Shah Muhammad Shah, President Pakistan Muslim League (N) Sindh accompanied the minister.