ISLAMABAD (Web Desk)-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.
