Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Air University Vice Chancellor Faaiz Amir has said that the Belt and Road Initiative brings lots of opportunities and connectivity in the fields of healthcare and life sciences.

He was addressing the inaugural session of a two-day international conference ‘LIFECON-2018’, organised by Fazaia Media College, Air University.

In his speech, the vice chancellor proposed to formulate China-Pakistan health corridor along the CPEC for both the nations to benefit. He emphasized that the proposed corridor will boost an effective platform to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the various fields. In this regard, he urged the need to launch various joint ventures to focus on healthcare market.

“We need to harness bioengineering, information sciences, data analytics, and system engineering in order to resolve health care challenges,” he said. The Vice Chancellor also acknowledged that China has the world’s largest mobile healthcare app operators. “In Health China 2030 Plan, Chinese government has placed healthcare as one of the top strategic priorities,” he further said.

Former federal minister, co-chair, WHO High Level Commission on NCDs Dr Sania Nishtar, said that healthcare is not just limited to doctors, nurses and paramedical but its domains extend beyond. She stressed that the health challenges being faced today can be overcome by research and joint collaborations.

On the occasion, Chinese scholars from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an also presented their research studies.

Published in Daily Times, January 16^th 2018.