ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Ahsan Iqbal has said that the government will create an enabling environment for the youth by encouraging innovative ideas and creating opportunities for distinctive skills to put the country on the path of economic development and prosperity.

While addressing the Research for Social Transformation and Advancement (RASTA) organised by Pakistan Institute of Development Economic (PIDE), here on Wednesday, the minister said that the Youth Affairs Wing of this ministry is playing an active and assertive role in materializing these objectives. He acknowledged the role of PIDE in generating policy-informed debates on these critical yet neglected topics.

PIDE, under the initiative of PIDEAS (PIDE IDEAS programme) is producing documentary films based on the evidence-based research produced at the institute on pertaining public policy issues, of which this was the first session in the documentary film series organised, here in the federal Capital. The event was attended by academicians, policymakers, practitioners, development partners, civil society, and public and private sector representatives.

The participants, while stressing the need for public debate on public policy-related issues said that debate pressing public policy issues and facilitate engagements between different stakeholders to typify the issues of socio-economic significance, cross-fertilise ideas through knowledge sharing, and prescribe actionable ways forward.

Addressing the participants Vice-Chancellor (VC) Nadeemul Haque said the research without debate is useless saying that PIDEAS initiative will help us to generate and disseminate research-based ideas, inform policy debate, and suggest actionable solutions for change and growth in Pakistan.

The visual format has always remained one of the most engaging and key conversational tools for producing research, and in the wake of using this as an instrument for knowledge production and dissemination.

Therefore, three films were screened at the event: Rethinking Urban Mobility in Pakistan based on PIDE research titled, “Rethinking mobility (urban transport policy) in Pakistan”; An Unending Wait for Car: Own Money based on PIDE research titled, “The Issue of Own Money”; and No Country for the Youth based on PIDE research titled, “Opportunity to Excel: Now and the Future”.

Muhammad Afnan Alam, Deputy Director General (Land and Estate), CDA led the debate on urban mobility in the context of Islamabad. The research-based film suggests that cities are the engine of growth because cities are where development and innovation happen.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022