0
KARACHI, March 13: Science and Technology Minister Prof Dr Attaur Rahman laid the foundation stone of a national science centre at the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, Karachi University, on Friday.
The acting director of institute, Prof Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary, was also present on the occasion.
He said this facility, to be named as Latif Ebrahim Jamal National Science Centre, would be completed in six months' time at a an estimated cost of Rs 11 million, to be provided by the HEJ Foundation.
Dr Atta, who is also chairman of the Higher Education Commission, said the centre would have various international data bases access.
He pointed out that it would be an information centre within the premises of the varsity, which would be open for students as well as the faculty members.
"This centre will be an information hub largely for Karachi University students and faculty," he added.
The KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui said this centre will have several laboratories equipped with modern research tools.
Dr Choudhry pointed out that the centre would not only house a large digital library, but it would also be a world-class facility for research in chemical and biochemical sciences.
A plan was being chalked out for acquisition of equipment for the centre, which would offer over 11,600 science journals on line, he said.
There would also be a video-conference hall with a seating capacity of more than 200 people, besides a bio-informatic lab at the centre, it was further pointed out.
Later addressing a press conference, Dr Attaur Rehman said that an action plans would be chalked out for using science and technology for the socio-economic development of the country.
Dr Atta, who is also the chairman of the Higher Education Commission, said the federal cabinet, a couple of months ago, had assigned him with the task of formulating a strategy for economic development.
"It was desired that I should prepare the vision strategy and action plan for using science and technology for socio-economic development," he elaborated.
He said that he was in the process of preparing short, medium and long-term plans for 2010, 2020 and 2030, respectively, which would be placed before the federal cabinet within the next three months time.
He stated that various sectors, such as agriculture, industry, engineering, pharmaceutical, chemical, water and energy etc, would also be identified, in which technologies would be used for enhancing their performance.
Dr Atta said that some specific projects and programmes would also be identified for immediate launching, with a view to develop country's economy.
PhD courses: Under a major new programme, some 500 people would be sent abroad each year for undertaking PhD courses in the engineering disciplines.
This was stated by Science and Technology Minister Dr Attaur Rahman, while talking to APP on Saturday.
He said these people would be sent to Europe and other parts of the world for the PhD programmes, while the US would be avoided for its heavy fee structure, Dr Atta said.
He pointed out that we would mainly be focusing Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and other countries for the programme.
He said that a project in this connection was being prepared, which would be submitted before the Central Working Party of the Ecnec over the next three to four weeks for the training of engineers on a large scale.
He was of the view that engineering sector in the country was weak, and that it had to be assigned top priority owing to its application in the industry as well as in the defence sector.
Dr Atta, maintaining that the engineering varsities in the country needed attention, said that during his tenure as the federal science and technology minister in the previous government, endowment funds were created at each of the engineering university in the country for post-graduate research.
The minister stressed that what we really need was the quality faculty, and unless this aspect was strengthened the varsities could not be improved.
He also said that recently 40 persons had been sent to China for taking PhD courses in various engineering disciplines in the Beijing University.-APP
