Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr Ishfaq Ahmad met with Chinese Vice-Premier Madam Wu Yi here on Thursday and discussed with her matters relating to bilateral co-operation in the field of Science and Technology (S&T).
They particularly exchanged views on mutual co-operation in the area of high technologies and their use for the economic betterment of the people of the two countries.
Dr Ishfaq who was here to participate in the annual meeting of World Ministerial Forum also held meetings with other Chinese senior officials, including Vice Minister, Ministry of Commerce Wei Guo, Vice Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology Liu Yanhua and Vice Minister Information Industry Lou Qinjian.
Official sources told newsmen that the meetings proved very productive to further enhance bilateral co-operation for economic development.
The two countries attached great importance to their bilateral co-operation and were engaged in the development of comprehensive partnership in all sectors of mutual interest, they added.
Dr Ishfaq Ahmad also presented a paper on use of high technology for economic development in Pakistan, at the Forum that was attended, among others by Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Myanmar.
In his paper, he dealt at length with the ongoing economic development in the country and the priority areas in the field of S&T. He said Pakistan would need the support of the friendly countries to achieve its stipulated targets.
"We aspire to emulate the great strides made by our friend and neighbour, China in developing high technologies and their use," he added.
He told the forum that the government of Pakistan had undertaken a vigorous structural reform programme that started to show results in the form of good macroeconomic indicators, adding the large-scale manufacturing had shown record growth.
He said, "Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in 2003 was 5.5 percent, which was better than the forecast at the beginning of the year. It is expected to be above six percent in 2004."
Dr Ishfaq underlined the importance of rapid industrial growth, but said agriculture would remain a major contributor to the economy of Pakistan in the future.
"The use of modern technology in the area of agriculture can pay rich dividends. Selective breeding has been used traditionally to improve the quantity and quality of main crops," he added.
He said that use of nuclear and biotechnology was now being undertaken to reduce the time required to develop new varieties, adding a plant genome Group had been established to study the genome of cotton, rice, wheat and sugarcane.
That group, he added, would be backbone of all future development in plant breeding and evolution of better crop varieties. Bio-pesticides and bio-fertiliser production was also being promoted and commercialised for better environment regime, he said.
Dr Ishfaq also highlighted Pakistan's efforts for developing its water resources and said the water management for irrigation purposes was being done according to crop water requirements.
Another technology being used for increasing water conservation was the use of locally developed Laser Land levellers, he said adding the nuclear techniques for diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases were increasingly being used in the country.