Pakistan can move forward in IT with Chinese support: minister

Punjab Higher Education Minister Raja Yasir Hamayun Sarfaraz said on Tuesday that Pakistan can learn from the Chinese advancement in technology. Pakistan can move forward in Information Technology with the support of China.

He was addressing the inauguration ceremony of 13th IEEE International Conference on Open Source Systems & Technologies (ICOSST 2019) at University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore. He also said that Government of Punjab has launched a micro-chip architecture certification program for engineers. Under which thousands of engineers would be getting job opportunities in the international job market."

Talking to the media, the provincial minister said, "The bill related to the Student Union would be passed by the Assembly. The concept of Student Union has been banned because of its politicization which cannot be restored to its old state. Their restoration would be done only if it would work for the betterment of students.

The proposal for creating student government is under consideration same as the Student Union in the universities. In the Student Government, the government and the students would establish a fund which would be spent on the welfare of the students.

Our government wants to bring about a positive change in the lives of students." He said that guidance center would also be established this academic year. This guidance center would provide guidance to students on career counseling, scholarships and job placement.

While addressing the participants Chairman Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Prof. Dr. Fazal Ahmad Khalid said "PHEC always encourages institutes and government organizations for the use of open source technologies which provide transparent use of the technologies with minimal cost.

HEC is very keen to promote open source tools and has encouraged the researcher's community to generously contribute in this cause." He further said, "UET has established a first of its kind smart classroom in collaboration with International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO in Shenzhen, china and Weidong Cloud Education Group.

Vice Chancellor UET Dr. Syed Mansoor Sarwar said, "There is dire need for Pakistan to keep due focus on the development and use of AI technologies since they have the potential to boost our economy in several areas and enhance our exports to billion dollars.

In recent times, several initiatives have been launched at the national level to take advantage of the current wave of AI." He said, "Four national centers, National Center of Artificial Intelligence, National Center of Robotics and Automation, National Center of Cyber Security and National Center of Cloud Computing & Big Data have been established last year."

"I feel truly honored to share that UET has won the funding under all these centers after healthy competition amongst other universities across the country" he added. At the end of conference Vice Chancellor UET distributed souvenirs among honorable guests.