Pakistan and Germany would shortly sign an agreement for training of Pakistanis in German universities and institutes of higher learning.
Initially, some 40 scholars would be educated in Germany and from next year, the number would increase possibly to 200, it is learnt.
Training would be in different fields of science and social studies.
Pakistan has offered to bear part of the expenses for their education in Germany.
The indication for co-operation in higher education and research was given at the function held at a local hotel to award certificates to eight Pakistani talented graduate students for participation at Nobel Laureates function at Lindua (Germany).
German ambassador to Pakistan Christoph Brommer ,N.M. Butt, representative of Lindua of Committee for Nobel Laureates meeting in Lindua, and Parvez Butt, chairman, PAEC, and Professor Dr Attaur Rahman, chairman Higher Education Commission, addressed the gathering.
The German ambassador told the meeting that it was the first opportunity for the Pakistani scholars to benefit from their interactions high calibre scholars. He said, "field of scientific exchanges is a never-ending exercise because the goalposts continue to increase."
Speaking about renewal of scientific co-operation with Pakistan, the German envoy announced that Germany would offer 40 Ph.D. scholarships to Pakistanis in different fields and for this an agreement would be signed shortly.
This would help Pakistani scholars to catch up with the latest global trends for progress and development.
Welcoming the gesture of the German ambassador, Professor Attaur Rahman said that the country was in dire need of expanding higher education for which the government has several programmes and projects.
"The country is investing huge funds for bridging the knowledge divide and grooming a highly-qualified manpower. It is only through the latter, the country's fight against poverty could succeed through higher growth rate and accelerated development."
He added that without investment in high quality manpower, the shackles of poverty and low growth cannot be wished away.
In this connection, Professor Attaur Rahman spoke of different projects and hoped that with the surplus funds for higher education, the government would like to send at least 100 students to Germany and hoped that next year the number would increase to at least 200 PhD scholars.
He has also made requests to other European countries and China to allow larger number of students at the seat of higher learning and research.
He disclosed that the Higher Education Commission is working hard to prepare a strategic plan, vision and plan of action in the next four months for bridging the knowledge gap in four to five years.
It is proposed that the country, which is producing about 200 PhDs a year, should be able to increase this number to 1,500.
Earlier, N.M. Butt, country representative of Lindua, said that a group of eight talented graduate students participated in the 53rd Lindua meeting.
The subject of the weeklong meeting was medicine and physiology. Pakistani participants were selected after a severe selection regimen.
The Pakistani groups had made favourable impression on the Nobel Laureates and two of them were also offered to work with them.
Pakistani participants were Dr Aica Mohyiuddin (KRL, Islamabad); Dr Abida Raza (NIBGE, Faisalabad), Miss Somaira Majid (NIBGE Faisalabad); Hammad Nasir Qureshi, KEMC, Lahore; Dr Naveed Janjua (Agha Khan Medical College, Karachi; Miss Saman Zafar, RMC, Rawalpindi. Dr Saeed Mahmud Khan (Agha Khan Medical College), Karachi.
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