Ahsan Iqbal Reaffirms Govt Commitment To Establish University Campus In Each District To Achieve SDGs

Inister for Planning Development and Reforms Professor Ahsan Iqbal here on Thursday reaffirmed the government commitment to establish at least two university campuses at every district of the country in order to ensure easy access to higher education

ISLAMABAD, Apr 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Apr, 2018 ) :Minister for Planning Development and Reforms Professor Ahsan Iqbal here on Thursday reaffirmed the government commitment to establish at least two university campuses at every district of the country in order to ensure easy access to higher education in order to harness the talent of national youth to achieve the target set under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for creating a better world for every one.

Addressing SDG 16th Innovative Challenges organized by Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms in collaboration with United Nation Development Programme, young development Corps and Accountability Lab, he said that youth was comprising over 64 percent of the local population.

He informed that SDG 16 innovation competition was an initiative for the young people of Pakistan to find creative solutions for SDG-16, which was based on peace, justice and strong institutions.

The minister said that youth were the key stakeholder in the Sustainable Development Goals and have many ideas that could help to achieve the goals and making the country more prosperous and secure.

He said that the competition would help and support young people to develop ideas, build skills and connect with each other working towards these shared goals. He said that it was proper initiative to engage youth in positive activities and help them to prepare the home grown solutions of different issues and challenges being faced by the country, adding that it would also help in enhancing the participation of young people in policy making process.

Ahsan Iqbal said that the present was the era of knowledge, innovations, digitization and competitiveness, adding that such changes were also observed in the country, which were taking place very swiftly and entering among the top 25 performing economies of the world.

He said that national youth was the better judge and could make a comparison of Pakistan what it was in 2013 at that time it had to face energy crisis, security challenges, deteriorating economy with lower foreign investment and about empty foreign exchange reserves.

He said that today, Pakistan was a better Pakistan and rising Pakistan as the energy issues were addressed, security was improved and economy was gaining momentum as it achieved highest GDP growth as compared to last ten years.

He said that government had make huge investment in youth on their higher education and established university campuses at every district of the country, adding that four campuses were established at different areas of Balochistan.

He informed that about 8,000 students were getting higher education in campus established in district Nohshki of Balochistan and youth and women were becoming economically empower after the initiation of CPEC in Thar Parker areas.