Prof. Ahsan Iqbal, the Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiative inaugurated RASTA’S (Research for Social Transformation and Advancement) second conference here at the Marriott’s, Islamabad.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Ahsan Iqbal said that we cannot afford to misdirect and misspend meager resources. He said that Pakistani universities must be knowledge hubs and network with each other to drive positive change.
Lauding the work done by PIDE and starting Pakistan’s largest social sciences research program, the minister said I am happy and congratulate PIDE and RASTA for providing that space to youngsters. He said that the research should come up with out-of-the-box yet practical solutions to our problems.
Stressing the importance of a public sector think tank like PIDE, the Minister said that PIDE has to meet the demand for research. He stressed that the government ministries and departments must benefit from PIDE. He said that there is no dearth of research in Pakistan, but the application is lacking.
Talking about the importance of CPEC, Prof. Iqbal said that the inception of the CPEC was a turning point in the history of Pakistan. He said that for the first time, the country was perceived from an economic standpoint rather than the usual security lens. Ambassadors from many countries approached the government to express their desire to become a part of the Corridor. However, the progress on the CPEC halted once the government changed in 2018.
The Minister said that we must ponder over why we have not been able to make progress since independence in 1947. He said that it seems we have come a full circle and have come back to the situation from where we started in 1947. The Minister reiterated the importance of political stability and continuity of policy for the economic development of Pakistan.
Prof. Ahsan Iqbal said that countries like China, India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia were lagging behind Pakistan economically a couple of decades ago but now they have leapfrogged ahead of Pakistan.
Later in the day, as many as 4 research papers completed under the second round of the RASTA Competitive Grants Programme (CGP) and two Demand Driven Research (DDR) projects were presented on the first day of the second RASTA conference.
Among others, the conference was attended by representatives of ministries, departments, and sector specialists from international and national organizations. =
