Pakistan to sign 18th protocol with China on S&T cooperation: Rana Tanveer

ISLAMABAD June 10 (APP) - Minister for Science and Technology Rana Tanveer Hussain on Friday said that Pakistan would sign the 18th Protocol with China on Science and Technology cooperation during the current year.

The Minister expressed these views before leaving on a five-day official visit to China to attend the Second Forum on China South Asia Technology Transfer and Collaborative Innovation at Kunming China, being held from June 12 to June 14.

The Minister said a high-level delegation from the Ministry of Science and Technology China would be invited to visit Pakistan in October or November this year the protocol signing.

He said presently Pakistan and China were pursuing cooperation in the fields of Science and Technology under the framework of Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation-1976.

He said the agreement resulted in an implementation of the more than 350 items of Cooperation, comprising of exchanges of expertise, training, holding of workshops and seminars, conducting joint research projects, establishment of Joint Research Centers in various disciplines like Water, Micro Hydel, Technology Parks, Science Parks, Oceanography Research Center, Medicinal Drugs Research centers etc..

The current 17th protocol, he said, was signed during a meeting of the Pak-China Joint Committee on Science and Technology held on November 4, 2011 at Beijing, for the period 2012-16.

Sharing the decisions taken in last year's Forum, the minister said that everyone agreed to establish the Islamabad-based Technology Transfer Center as part of the main programme.

He said that it was also decided to initiate joint ventures in research and development projects, besides formulating Joint Working group from both Pakistani and China.

He said establishment of Technical Training Center and state of the art China-Pakistan Joint Quality Testing Laboratory at Gwadar Port for the testing and quality assurance of products including Halal for import and export purposes will be discussed during the next meeting.