BEIJING, July 24: Pakistan on Saturday signed five separate cooperation agreements with some leading Chinese Universities for higher education.

Under the agreements, more than 20 staff members of Commission for Science and Technology (Comsats) will be sent to China every year for PhDs in different disciplines.

This programme will start from September this year and will cover other areas of mutual interests, including faculty exchange programme, collaboration in research programme and participation in seminars and conferences.

The agreements were signed by Comsats delegation comprising Wing Commander (Retd) Shahzad Muhammad Khan and Dr Qaisar Abbas.

The Chinese side was represented by Prof Ma Shi-Zhuang, Vice President of Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fan Ying, Director of Beijing Institute of Technology.

Pakistan Ambassador Riaz Mohammad Khan was also present at the signing ceremony. China is the first foreign country with whom Comsats has entered into formal agreements for higher education.

Mr Shahzad Khan told APP that the Chinese universities had also shown their willingness to help in conducting short and long-term research and development courses.

Pakistan, he said, would also initiate some other programmes of higher education in collaboration with China within next five years.

The delegation, during their eight-day stay in China, held very useful discussion with top officials of the Chinese Universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Tainjin for bilateral cooperation in the field of science and technology.-APP