ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal inaugurated three centres, including Pakistan China Joint Research Centre on Earth Sciences, Pakistan China Joint Research Centre, and Dr A Q Khan Institute of Material and Emergency Sciences at the Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad on Friday.
These Higher Education Commission-sponsored centres, approved by the Central Development Working Party, were formally opened during a ceremony organized at the university which was attended among others by the Vice Chancellor Dr Niaz, Chinese officials and a good number of students.
Addressing the ceremony, the minister said the centres would play an important role in producing world-class researchers.
He said these important projects remained pending for the last 4 years but the incumbent government ensured their inauguration.
Iqbal said that Pakistan China Joint Research Centre would play a key role in producing researchers who would be beneficial in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
He said the Chinese Vice-Premier recently visited Pakistan to mark the ten-year celebrations of the mega-project CPEC which manifested the complete support from China.
He added that government had revived the CPEC projects which were neglected by the previous PTI-led government.
He also underlined several initiatives taken by the government after coming into power in April 2022.
Pakistan China Joint Research Centre on Earth Sciences
Pakistan China Joint Research Centre on Earth Sciences deals with all areas of natural science related to the study of the planet’s physical characteristics, from raindrops to earthquakes, and fossils to floods, and the impact of human activities on environment.
The Centre, besides other planet-related studies, would focus on the impacts of large-scale infrastructure activities under CPEC, promoting scientific and technological research and development studies in the earth sciences.
It would be the first of its kind to look into the issues related to sea, land, and atmosphere due to large-scale CPEC infrastructure and other activities.
