ISLAMABAD:
With 37% of Pakistan’s youth neither employed nor enrolled in education or training, the government has proposed to China to offer 10,000 PhD scholarships to Pakistani students at the top 25 Chinese universities. The initiative aims to equip young people with education in emerging disciplines and support the modernization of Pakistan’s economy.
The proposal was presented to Chinese authorities during a recent meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, said Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday while talking to The Express Tribune.
The minister said that the Chinese side has also shown interest in the proposal and sought more details from Pakistan.
According to the proposal, the Pakistani side emphasized that nearly 60% of the country’s population is under the age of 30 and proposed the allocation of 10,000 PhD scholarships in artificial intelligence, engineering, and emerging sciences at China’s leading universities over the next decade, to build a strong human resource base for knowledge-driven growth.
The proposal is being considered by the Chinese authorities and could be included in the final draft minutes of the 14th JCC, which are expected to be signed very soon.
According to the World Bank’s recent poverty, equity and resilience assessment of Pakistan, 37% of the Pakistani youth aged 15-24 years are not employed or participating in education or training. This is due to a combination of high demographic pressures and the misalignment of labor demand with skills, putting youth at risk of becoming socially and economically excluded, stated the report.
The share of Not Employed, in Education, or Training (NEET) youth is higher in urban areas at 39% versus 35% in towns and higher for women than men, according to the World Bank. It added that it was particularly concerning that NEET rates were higher and rising among youth belonging to the bottom two welfare quintiles, as this limits the ability of poorer households to improve their living conditions.
The report further underlined that recent years have brought back-to-back crises — including macroeconomic, political, and climate-induced shocks — that have shown the vulnerability of Pakistan’s growth model, further putting pressure on the poor.
The Planning Minister said that Pakistan proposed to the Chinese authorities to give PhD scholarships to Pakistani students in their top 25 universities to strengthen the softer side of the CPEC and training people in the modern disciplines.
Iqbal said that CPEC has already moved from the infrastructure to areas that are critical for the modernization of Pakistan’s economy. He said that these scholarships are proposed to be given over a period of 10 years.
According to another proposal, Pakistan has also requested China to initiate vocational training programmes, youth innovation centres, and internship opportunities in Chinese enterprises to equip young Pakistanis with the skills required to lead in advanced technologies, industry, and green growth in CPEC 2.0.
The World Bank said in its report that educational attainment in Pakistan was alarmingly low; about one-quarter of primary school-aged children do not attend school, and nearly eight out of ten 10-year-olds cannot read and understand a simple text.
In 2021, Pakistan’s learning poverty index stood at 78%, significantly higher than the average for low- and middle-income countries where the ratio is 60%. Learning poverty is defined as the share of the 10-year-old children that cannot read and write a simple text.
The World Bank’s Human Capital Review indicates that the quality of education in Pakistan was far below that of its income and regional peer countries. Only half the time students spend in school is dedicated to learning, teacher absenteeism remains a significant issue, and teaching quality is low.
Any educational improvement has been driven by a shift from public to private schools, while children from lower-income households continue to attend underperforming, underfunded government schools.
Pakistan has been discussing the issue of strengthening the capabilities of its youth with China. According to the draft minutes of the CPEC, in September this year, Pakistan and China agreed to actively promote policy exchanges, talent training, academic seminars, and industrial cooperation in areas such as information and communication technology infrastructure, application innovation, policies and regulations, radio frequency spectrum management, cyber security, and human resource development.
They also agreed to continue cooperation in formulating frequency spectrum regulations for emerging technologies. In addition, both sides exchanged views on supporting Pakistan in establishing a telecommunication research center, as well as emerging technology and hardware laboratories.
However, in order to nullify any propaganda against the bilateral and commercial relations, it was decided that “both sides would further jointly strengthen the positive promotion of both CPEC projects and non-CPEC projects, promptly refute and clarify smearing remarks, and promote the formation of a more positive and favourable perception of China among the Pakistani people, so as to create a friendly environment for the smooth progress of these projects”.
Due to the poor capacity of Pakistani bureaucracy to develop bankable projects for foreign investment, the government had decided to hire foreign consultants. However, it recently presented a Rs5.4 billion cost of consultancy before the Central Development Working Party. The CDWP deferred the project for now.
According to a statement issued by the Public Private Partnership Authority through the Planning Ministry, the Rs5.4 billion project was aimed at engaging top tier consulting firms and was approved by the federal cabinet to provide structured, whole-of-government advisory support across federal ministries.
It said that allocating a budget for external consultancy is standard practice. The CDWP routinely earmarks roughly 3-5% of each year’s Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for consultancy and advisory services.
The PPPA further stated that these funds do not create physical assets but are invested in expertise to ensure that major policies and projects are evidence-based and aligned with global best practices.
