FAISALABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal said efforts are afoot to set up sub-campuses of universities in each district to provide quality education to the youth at their doorstep.

Addressing the launching ceremony of the Young Development Corps (YDC) at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad on Monday, he said the government was also working on Rs3 billion Technology Innovation Research Fund project to finance innovative ideas through competitive research grants.

He said marketable research helped pave way for uplift of economic activities.

The YDC programme has been launched at the 20 varsities in the country.

The minister said political stability, continuity of policies and quality education was vital to economic growth.

He said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would help Pakistan boost its economic activities.

Mr Iqbal said the government was making all-out efforts for uplift of agriculture sector and to address the farmers’ problems, adding that in the federal budget, prices of inputs had been decreased and GST waved off on pesticides, ensuring their availability in the market.

He said the agriculture sector had been facing many challenges, including climate change and per-acre low productivity, requiring efforts to address such issues. Last year, the cotton crop faced significant reduction due to climate change, he added.

The minister said the government had kicked off Pak-US Knowledge Corridor under which 10,000 scholarships would be offered to local students for studying in 200 US varsities.

The UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmed also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2016