he Higher Education Commission (HEC) held an event to discuss the key areas where human resource development is necessary to cater to the future needs of the country.
At the seminar titled `National human resource development plan: visualising socio-economic growth of Pakistan`, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan needed 10,000 PhDs in different fields in the coming few years.
He said the government had launched a programme titled `Technology innovation fund` to provide grants to researchers and youth with innovative ideas.
The conference was attended by academia, representatives from R&D organisations, ministers, members of the corporate sectors and officials from different government departments.
Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said the HEC was spending over 40 per cent of the public sector development programme (PSDP) funds on human resource development.
He said higher education was the key to success in the `era of knowledge economy` and directly reflected in the country`s GDP growth. He said it was important to ensure the development of human resources and to equip people with proper education and training. Dr Ahmed said the recommendations of experts at the conference would be drafted into the HEC`s strategy and those fields having a direct impact on the country`s socio-economic development would be prioritised.
