Agriculture, electronics manufacturing top priorities of government: Fawad Chaudhry

Islamabad : Ch Fawad Hussain, Federal Minister for Science and Technology has said agriculture, electronics and manufacturing of electric vehicles are three top priorities.

The Minister was addressing a technical session on the last day of the 4-day 23rd Sustainable Development Conference on ‘Sustainable Development in the Times of COVID-19’ organised here by Sustainable Development Policy Institute.

Ch Fawad said that the emergence of technology affected all the areas of the traditional economy. This is fourth-generation industrial revolution, where ideas took over labour and capital. He said that advanced countries kept parallel both the civil and defence engineering advancement.

He was of the view that an investment-based health sector should be promoted and private partners should be encouraged to invest as it has huge potential. The minister further said that he has been a great advocate of privatisation and wants the government should limit itself only to regulation. In response to a question related to interdepartmental coordination and consensus on these areas, he said we must promote local partnerships, especially in manufacturing solar panels and batteries with China. To a question about synchronising academia with industries, he said that at least 40 universities were tasked to adopt schools for Stem Education.

Wendy Gilmour, Canadian High Commissioner, said that the donor community intervention should be evidence-based despite the fact that data collection itself is a challenging job. She also launched the National Population Analysis, which highlighted the inequalities existing in the system. We need the baseline data in decision-making, she said, adding that support will be provided to Pakistan and developmental partners. She said that community-based social organisations are challenged by the registration process and they face a lot in collecting data.

Huma Chughtai from Federal Judicial Academy said that transgenders are being neglected at every level and their rights are always violated even in the presence of laws. She stressed the need to involve media in changing the mindset of society, to reduce gender-based discrimination.

Aisha Mughal said that the culprits are not punished due to flaws in our legal system. She said transgenders suffered a lot and no financial support is given to them by the government.

Khadija Ali said that we need to adopt an attitude of critique to avoid loopholes in our legal system which is patriarchal and needs to be gender-responsive. She said both females and transgenders face harassment and the law does not benefit them due to its weak implementation.

Richard Ough from FCDO said Covid-19 led to global implications, especially in Pakistan. The evolution during the pandemic led to new evidence, which is the new normal. He said many businesses were closed during the pandemic, 54% of companies used digitisation, 20% invested in digital platforms.

Michael Nehrbass from USAID, Pakistan, said the world businesses are going to close, and children are out of school. He said USAID is helping the private sector in developing digital business.

Umer Akhlaq Malik from UNDP said the readily available data is not easily accessible. Unfortunately, to address the socioeconomic response plan, we do not have a national data collection plan. He stressed the need for quick transformation for data collection.