Government has planned to produce 1,500 Ph.D annually, with 1,000 funded scholarships in recognition of crucial importance of human resources development in key areas.
Tariq Hassan, Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister stated this at a seminar on Empowering the Research and Development, Industrial and SME sector, with Science and Technology jointly organised by the Pakistan Scientific and Technological Centre, Pakistan Foundation/Ministry of Science and Technology and the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) held here on Tuesday.
He said that measures have been adopted to prevent the brain drain including favourable working conditions and facilities as well as highly competitive salaries for university researchers.
Significant efforts have been made to enhance networking among universities and research institutions. Cognisant of the crucial importance of access to journals for the scientific community, a database has been set up which provides full text access to several hundred international journals.
This database is accessible by most universities and research institutions the cost of access is born by the government. The government of Pakistan has encouraged wide use of these information technologies and during the past few years a visible difference in their development is seen. Besides, the government has increased the budget for S&T and education manifolds.-PR