Engineering Post Report
Building capabilities is the key to sustaining economic growth and development in the country. It requires sufficient investment in the sectors of Information and Telecommunication Technologies (ICT) , youth and skill development, science and technology, higher education and institutional reforms and governance.
According to the Planning Commission sources, Pakistan needs to improve its production growth, increase the skill levels of its workforce and consequently move towards better living standard for its people. These multifarious challenges could only be addressed by adoption of technology on widespread level in the country.
Sectoral unemployment is the main capability issue pertaining to youth that needs to be addressed. The reforms in technical, vocational education and training sector had led to the adoption of National TVET Policy through National Vocational Qualification Framework and upgrading the Competency based Training and Assessment. However, the skill gap for some trades and geographic regions still existed, which are being addressed through upgradation of existing TVETs and establishment of new TVETs in less developed districts in the provinces. Second main issue of the sector was gender equity. To exploit the full potential of youth, gender-wise equity in terms of female contribution was also being mainstreamed in the TVETs skill development programmes.
Science and Technology Sector, the sources pointed out continuingly, has vast potential to improve the standard of living of general populace as investment in this sector offered numerous cross-sector linkages, ventures in other sectors of socio-economic importance. Building knowledge economy architecture required investment in human resource development in Science and Technology sector in order to make Pakistani products competitive in the international markets.
The incumbent federal government was committed to supporting development of knowledge-economy based on three main verticals: access, quality and relevance to economic development. Although, access to higher education has appreciably increased, yet Pakistan lags behind comparable countries in this respect. The other two objectives, namely equality and relevance also needed significant improvement.
The governance referred to the process of and structures that are designed to ensure rule of law, accountability, transparency, responsiveness, stability, equity and inclusiveness, empowerment and broad-based participation.
The present government was cognizant of the importance of improving governance as a key enabler of effective service delivery, successful outcomes of various public policies and programmes that were critical for sustainable economic growth and development of the country.
