Islamabad February 20 2025: Federal Minister for Planning, Development & special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday said Pakistan has the potential to become Asia’s fastest-growing economy within 22 years. This optimism stems from Pakistan’s favorable demographic and resource dynamics. Notably, Pakistan’s ratio of natural resources to population is unmatched in the region, providing a unique advantage.
He expressed these views while addressing as a chief guest at the inauguration of Astrolabe Datacentre at NED Engineering University here. Among other notables, Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, Professor Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed and Vice Chancellor NED Engineering University Dr. Sarosh Hashmat Lodhi were also present.
Earlier, the minister formally performed the inauguration of the Datacenter.
Ahsan Iqbal said that Pakistan got all required resources like we have manpower, natural minerals, and the modern infrastructure that we have put in place, and now, we only need stability and continuity of policies, and if we do this, we can move forward in this continent.
The Federal Minister said that we have built the Datacenter, now more important is its utilization that what will be its functions and how will we use this facility so that we can provide better learning to our students. It is important that how will we conduct research within our education and how will we bring private sector investments and harmonize it in a knowledge and industry, he added.
Ahsan Iqbal said that Pakistani universities have to become problem solvers, solution providers and a center of innovations that will give us all the possibilities for a bright future for the sustainable development.
He said that Pakistan’s universities have to lead, particularly, the engineering universities have to take the lead as the key to Pakistan’s future is in the hands of engineering universities.
He said that today United States is a superpower not on the strength of its weapons, not on the strength of its economy, if America is a superpower, then its universities are on the back of America.
He said that our roadmap in Uraan Pakistan is, how we can create a strong digital framework in Pakistan that will provide a strong foundation for the country and at the same time, we will implement artificial intelligence in every sector for which the National Task Force is working.
He said that today, we are again standing at a crossroads, Alhamdulillah, now all our economic indicators are positive.
He said, “We also have to adapt ourselves to the rapid change and prepare ourselves for future. We have to acquire those new digital means of development and, we have to grasp this digital revolution with which we can also move at the speed of electrons.”
He also lauded the VC NED Engineering University Dr. Hashmat Lodhi and said that NED varsity has completed this journey very successfully under the academic leadership of Dr. Lodhi.
He said that the Higher Education Commission has built this state-of-the-art Datacenter in collaboration with Huawei and the World Bank. This Datacenter is now the fuel of the future. Once the fuel of industrial development was petrol and now the fuel of the information/knowledge-based economy is data.
He said that this Datacenter will provide an opportunity to our researchers and, our industry, and now it is the duty of HEC that it should not be underutilized. May we be able to fully utilize this investment and let us all work together to put Pakistan on the path of development, he added.
Ahsan Iqbal was honored with a shield at an event where he also presented a shield to Dr. Sarosh Hashmat Lodhi, the Vice-Chancellor of NED Engineering University.
