LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Energy Dr Muhammad Akhter Malik says that thereis aneed to introduce latest disciplines of natural science and technology at universities to boost quality of education, and the country`s economy.

He was addressing the inaugural session of second international conference on `New Trends in Natural Sciences: Public Health, Food, Nutrition and Safety` at the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) on Wednesday.

The minister said that the government was changing its priorities and allocating the maximum budget and resources to research and development and education. The govern-ment and scientists should understand the importance of modern trends in natural sciences and new horizons in the field must be explored, he added.

The conference will continue till Oct 26. LCWU Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Farkhanda Manzoor, and research director and biotechnology department head Dr Shugfta Naz also spoke on the occasion.

Registrar Uzma Batool also attended the opening session.

Dr Naz said that LCWU was publishing eight research journals and advised the scientists to ensure commercialisation of applied research. She said the benefits of the research should go to the agriculture and health sectors and an agua laboratory had been set up to research on fisheries.