ChinaPakistan S&T Achievements Benefit People Of Both Countries

Meng Fangrong

ISLAMABAD, November 3 (China Economic Network) - "The people of China and Pakistan have always benefited from the results of S&T (Science and Technology) cooperation between China and Pakistan. China's advanced technologies in organic agriculture, ICT, healthcare, sustainable energy and aerospace can be transferred to its Pakistani brothers," he said. Cao Zhuhua, Science Commissioner of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, told China Economic Net in a recent interview.

S&T supports quality development of CPEC

The Commissioner said that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promotes two major innovation communities in Pakistan: the CPEC Entrepreneurship Group with over 200 members and an academic community that jointly produces 8,000 international articles every year.

The Chinese Embassy, ​​which stated that some CPEC companies are facing technical problems and the academic community is willing to solve basic technical problems, has tried to unite the two sides. "Successful compliance cases through this channel show that it is a good way to facilitate communication between the industry and the research community, which will contribute to the sustainable development of CPEC," Cao said.

China's science, technology and innovation action plan, launched in 2017, has four aspects: capacity building, joint laboratories, technology transfer and high-tech zones. Since then, these four aspects have become the focus of science and technology cooperation between the two governments and achieved great results, Cao said.

Complete CPEC with S&T documents

Scientists are key players in bilateral scientific and technical cooperation. According to Web of Science, the world's largest academic database, the number of articles jointly published by Chinese and Pakistani scientists will reach more than 8,000 by 2021, up from 626 when the BIS began in 2013, and a 13-fold increase in articles. .

As for the areas of study for these joint papers, Environment, Materials, Engineering/Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are among the four. Cao believes that this has laid a solid foundation for CPEC's quality development.

Cao stressed that the two countries attach great importance to capacity building cooperation: "In 2019, a total of 28,000 Pakistani students studied in Chinese universities, of which 7,000 received various scholarships." Since 2014, about 1,000 Pakistani scientists have participated in various training courses sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. The CPEC University Consortium currently has 85 members, including top universities from both sides. According to the annual report, in 2019-2021, the universities of the consortium conducted 63 bilateral training courses, 290 workshops and 262 jointly funded projects.

Regarding the formation of enterprises, more and more Chinese enterprises are joining the capacity building cooperation. "For example, the Huawei ICT Academy in Pakistan has trained 30,000 ICT workers for Pakistan since 2017. The China Road and Bridge Group has launched a fully funded program to train 100 Pakistani technicians in China in 2017," Zhuhua explained.

The Sino-Pakistani human settlement and high-tech zone cooperation will live up to expectations

China has made great achievements in the aerospace industry. In the year In 2019, the cooperation agreement between China's Human Space Agency and Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Exploration Commission marks a new phase in the cooperation between the two countries.

Cao said the Chinese embassy has organized two space-related events this year; The first is to organize a competition for Pakistani students called the China Astronaut Competition in collaboration with Pakistan Science Foundation and the second is to celebrate the founding anniversary. Spacecraft Shenzhou XIV launched on June 5, 2022 at the China Space Station to promote the COMSTECH research project "Cultivation of Pakistani Medicinal Seeds in Orbit on the China Space Station". Place in December 2022.

High-tech cooperation between China and Pakistan is another important area of ​​bilateral cooperation with great potential. China's 169 national high-tech zones integrate one-third of the country's high-tech enterprises and generate 13% of China's GDP in 0.1% of the country's territory.

The government of Pakistan attaches great importance to the role of high-tech zones in building a national high-tech industry. The Special Technology Zone Administration, established in 2021, hopes to share China's best practices in the development of high-tech zones.

Cooperation in high-tech zones was one of the main topics of the second joint scientific and technical meeting of CPEC in April. "The parties will discuss policy development, technology zone planning, start-up incubation, staff training, etc. and actively work on the ground. The high-tech zone is designed to be a new center of cooperation between the two countries," the commissioner concluded.

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