|
US institutions, HEC to boost cooperation
WASHINGTON, Feb 16(Dawn): For decades Pakistan's policy planners had wrong
priorities which prevented the country from establishing close relations with
educational and scientific institutions in the United States, according to Dr
Attaur Rehman, chairman of the Higher Education Commission.
"Education
and science and technology were not the main thrust of our policies," he said at
a joint briefing in Washington on Thursday with a US official.
"The scope
of the current programme is much broader than ever before and that is a major
achievement," said Dr Arden L. Bement, director of the US National Science
Foundation and leader of the US team at a two-day conference of the Pakistan-US
Joint Committee on Science and Technology that was held in Washington on Feb
13-14.
Dr Rehman said it was for the first time that the two sides had
held a dialogue on expanding cooperation in higher education, agriculture,
health, sciences, engineering and innovation and entrepreneurship.
The
two sides signed a memorandum of understanding for enhancing cooperation between
the Higher Education Commission and various institutions working under the US
Department of Agriculture. The delegates discussed cooperation in agriculture,
earth sciences and science and technology development, higher education, health
research, disease prevention and renewable energy.
Dr Rehman said the US
could help Pakistan prevent diseases like hepatitis and malaria.
|
