ISLAMABAD:
With 37% of Pakistan’s youth neither employed nor enrolled in education or training, the government has proposed China to offer 10,000 PhD scholarships to Pakistani students at the top 25 Chinese universities. The initiative aims to equip young people with training in new disciplines and support the modernization of Pakistan’s economy.
The proposal was presented to the Chinese authorities during a recent meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said on Wednesday while talking to The Express Pakinomist.
The minister said that the Chinese side has also shown interest in the proposal and sought more details from Pakistan.
According to the proposal, the Pakistani side emphasized that nearly 60% of the country’s population is under the age of 30 and proposed awarding 10,000 PhD scholarships in artificial intelligence, engineering and emerging sciences at China’s leading universities over the next decade, to build a strong human resource base for knowledge-driven growth.
The proposal is being considered by the Chinese authorities and may be included in the final draft of the minutes of the 14th JCC, which is expected to be signed very soon.
According to the World Bank’s latest Poverty, Equity and Resilience Assessment of Pakistan, 37% of Pakistani youth aged 15-24 are not employed or in education or training. This is due to a combination of high demographic pressure and the mismatch between labor demand and skills, which puts young people at risk of social and economic exclusion, the report says.
The proportion of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is higher in urban areas at 39% versus 35% in cities and higher for women than men, according to the World Bank. It added that it was of particular concern that NEET rates were higher and rising among young people in the bottom two welfare quintiles, as this limits the opportunity for poorer households to improve their living conditions.
The report further emphasized that recent years have brought back-to-back crises – including macroeconomic, political and climate-induced shocks – which have shown the vulnerability of Pakistan’s growth model, further putting pressure on the poor.
The Planning Minister said that Pakistan suggested the Chinese authorities to provide PhD scholarships to Pakistani students in their top 25 universities to strengthen the softer side of CPEC and train people in the modern disciplines.
Iqbal said that CPEC has already moved from the infrastructure to areas critical for the modernization of Pakistan’s economy. He said these scholarships are proposed to be given over a period of 10 years.
According to another proposal, Pakistan has also requested China to initiate vocational training programs, youth innovation centers and internship opportunities in Chinese companies to equip young Pakistanis with the skills required to lead in advanced technology, industry and green growth in CPEC 2.0.
The World Bank said in its report that the level of education in Pakistan was alarmingly low; around a quarter of children of primary school age do not go to school, and almost eight out of ten 10-year-olds cannot read and understand a simple text.
In 2021, Pakistan’s learning poverty index stood at 78%, which is significantly higher than the average for low- and middle-income countries, where the ratio is 60%. Learning poverty is defined as the proportion of 10-year-old children who cannot read and write a simple text.
The World Bank’s Human Capital Review shows that the quality of education in Pakistan was far below the quality of its income and regional peer countries. Only half of the time students spend in school is dedicated to learning, teacher absenteeism remains a significant problem and the quality of teaching is low.
Any educational improvement has been driven by a shift from public to private schools, while children from lower-income households continue to attend underperforming, underfunded public schools.
Pakistan has discussed the issue of empowering its youth with China. According to the draft minutes of CPEC, in September this year, Pakistan and China agreed to actively promote policy exchange, talent training, academic seminars and industrial cooperation in areas such as information and communication technology infrastructure, application innovation, policies and regulations, radio frequency spectrum management, cyber security and human resource development.
They also agreed to continue cooperation on formulating frequency spectrum rules for new technologies. In addition, both sides exchanged views on supporting Pakistan in establishing a telecommunications research center as well as new technology and hardware laboratories.
However, to nullify any propaganda against the bilateral and commercial relations, it was decided that “both sides will further jointly strengthen the positive promotion of both CPEC projects and non-CPEC projects, immediately refute and clarify smear remarks and promote the formation of a more positive and favorable perception of China among the Pakistani people, in order to create a smooth environment for these projects”.
Due to the poor capacity of Pakistani bureaucracy to develop bankable projects for foreign investment, the government had decided to hire foreign consultants. However, it recently presented an advisory cost of Rs 5.4 billion. for the central development working group. CDWP postponed the project until further notice.
According to a statement issued by the Public-Private Partnership Authority through the Ministry of Planning, the Rs5.4 billion project was aimed at engaging top-level consulting firms and was approved by the federal cabinet to provide structured, whole-of-government advisory support across federal ministries.
It said that allocating a budget to external advice is standard practice. CDWP routinely earmarks around 3-5% of each year’s Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for consultancy and advisory services.
The PPPA further stated that these funds do not create physical assets but are invested in expertise to ensure that major policies and projects are evidence-based and aligned with global best practice.
