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 in top 25 Chinese universities. The initiative aims to equip youth with education in emerging disciplines and support the modernization of Pakistan’s economy.
The proposal was presented to the Chinese authorities during a recent meeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Joint Cooperation Committee, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said while talking to The Express PAkGazette on Wednesday.
The minister said 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 almost 60% of the country’s population is under 30 years of age and proposed the allocation of 10,000 PhD scholarships in artificial intelligence, engineering and emerging sciences in top universities in China over the next decade, to build a strong human resource base for knowledge-driven growth.
The proposal is being considered by Chinese authorities and could be included in the final draft of the minutes of the 14th JCC, which is expected to be signed very soon.
According to the recent Pakistan Poverty, Equity and Resilience Assessment by the World Bank, 37% of Pakistani youth aged 15-24 are neither employed nor engaged in education or training. This is due to a combination of high demographic pressures and the misalignment of labor demand with skills, putting young people at risk of becoming socially and economically excluded, the report states.
According to the World Bank, the proportion of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is higher in urban areas, at 39% compared to 35% in cities, and is higher among women than men. He added that it was particularly worrying that NEET rates were highest and increasing among young people in the bottom two wealth quintiles, as this limits the ability of the poorest households to improve their living conditions.
The report further highlighted that recent years have brought consecutive crises (including macroeconomic, political and climate shocks) that have demonstrated the vulnerability of Pakistan’s growth model, putting even more pressure on the poor.
The Planning Minister said that Pakistan proposed to the Chinese authorities to provide PhD scholarships to Pakistani students in its top 25 universities to strengthen the softer side of CPEC and train people in modern disciplines.
Iqbal said CPEC has already moved from infrastructure to areas that are critical to the modernization of Pakistan’s economy. He said it is proposed that these scholarships be awarded over a 10-year period.
According to another proposal, Pakistan has also requested China to start vocational training programmes, youth innovation centers and internship opportunities in Chinese companies to equip Pakistani youth with the necessary skills to lead in advanced technologies, industry and green growth in CPEC 2.0.
The World Bank said in its report that the educational level in Pakistan was alarmingly low; around a quarter of primary school-aged children are out of school, and almost eight in ten 10-year-olds cannot read or understand simple text.
In 2021, Pakistan’s learning poverty rate stood at 78%, 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 or write a simple text.
The World Bank’s Human Capital Review indicates that the quality of education in Pakistan was far below that of its regional and income peer countries. Only half of the time students spend in school is spent learning, teacher absenteeism remains a major problem and the quality of teaching is low.
Any educational improvements have been driven by a shift from public to private schools, while children from low-income households continue to attend low-performing and underfunded government schools.
Pakistan has been discussing the issue of capacity building of its youth with China. According to the draft CPEC minutes, in September this year, Pakistan and China agreed to actively promote policy exchanges, talent training, academic seminars and industrial cooperation in areas such as information and communications technology infrastructure, application innovation, policies and regulations, radio frequency spectrum management, cybersecurity and human resource development.
They also agreed to continue cooperation in formulating frequency spectrum regulations for emerging technologies. Additionally, both sides exchanged views on supporting Pakistan in establishing a telecom research center as well as emerging hardware and technology laboratories.
However, to nullify any propaganda against bilateral and trade relations, it was decided that “both sides would further strengthen the positive promotion of CPEC and non-CPEC projects, quickly refute and clarify defamatory remarks, and promote the formation of a more positive and favorable perception of China among the Pakistani people, so as to create a friendly environment for the smooth progress of these projects.”
Due to the poor capacity of the Pakistani bureaucracy to develop bankable projects for foreign investment, the government decided to hire foreign consultants. However, it recently submitted a consultancy cost of Rs 5,400 crore before the Central Development Task Force. The CDWP postponed the project for now.
According to a statement issued by the Public Private Partnership Authority through the Ministry of Planning, the Rs 5.4 billion project was aimed at involving top-notch consulting firms and was approved by the federal cabinet to provide structured advisory support to the entire government across all federal ministries.
He said allocating a budget for external consulting is common practice. The CDWP typically allocates approximately 3% to 5% of each year’s Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for consulting and advisory services.
The PPPA further stated that these funds do not create physical assets, but rather invest in expertise to ensure that important policies and projects are evidence-based and aligned with global best practices.
