Pakistan pursuing multiple programmes to harness potential of youth: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday said Pakistan was pursuing multiple initiatives and programmes to harness potential of youth and provide them with education, skills and training.

While virtually addressing the 10th D8 summit in Dhaka, he said harnessing technology, promoting innovation and investing in youth education, skills and training was an urgent imperative.

This year’s theme of the conference was “Partnership for a Transformative World: Harnessing the Power of Youth and Technology.”

He told that Pakistan was pursuing initiatives and programmes such as Kamyab Naujawan, Hunarmand Pakistan, youth entrepreneurship scheme and digital Pakistan.

The prime minister said because of the inter-connectedness of the countries and economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities created by this interconnectedness, the coronavirus pandemic had caused death of over 2.9 million people and more than 250 million people had become unemployed and trillions of dollars were lost as a result of the global economic contraction.

The prime minister said the coronavirus had taken a heavy toll on poor countries and also inequality had been accentuated within the countries and between the rich and poor countries.

The developing countries were not only faced with the dilemma of saving their citizens from the deadly virus but they also have to save people from hunger, he observed.

He said today the world boasted the largest number of young people in history.

Even before the pandemic struck, one fifth of youth in the world was unemployed and did not have the education and skills to equip themselves for the 21st century, he remarked.

“We have 550 million youth population in the D8 countries. Our youth not only has the potential to optimize opportunities but they can also help overcome the present challenges.”

He said the developing countries had youth entrepreneurs, business innovators, technology pioneers, educators, artists and journalists and “we must create opportunities for this predominant component of the population”.