Daily Times

President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday said that Pakistan highly valued its ties with all friendly countries and wanted to further expand bilateral cooperation with them in the areas of economy, trade and culture.

The president expressed these views while talking to the High Commissioner-designate of Brunei Darussalam, Ambassadors-designate of Algeria and Greece, and non-resident Ambassadors-designate of Mauritania and Albania, who made separate calls on him at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

He said that Pakistan was emerging as an attractive business and investment destination and the foreign entrepreneurs needed to benefit from the investment-friendly business regime of the country.

The High Commissioner-designate of Brunei Darussalam, Pengiran Abdul Samad bin Pengiran Haji Metasan, Ambassadors-designate of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, Brahim Romani, Greece (Hellenic Republic), Konstantinos Moatsos, the Republic of Mauritania, Mohamed Vall Bah, and the Republic of Albania, Kastriot Robo presented their credentials to President Dr Arif Alvi at a ceremony.

Congratulating the newly-appointed ambassadors, the president expressed the hope that they would play their role to further strengthen bilateral relations during their stay in Pakistan.

Talking to the envoys, the president highlighted that Pakistan had introduced various reforms to bring improvements in the country’s business climate that would encourage foreign businesses to invest in Pakistan.

He stated that Pakistan was focusing on utilizing its unique geo-economic location to develop its economy.

The president said that Pakistan wanted to increase its trade volume with all friendly countries and was making efforts to enhance its exports.

He stressed the need to broaden the base of bilateral cooperation by establishing institutional frameworks with friendly countries for meaningful engagement in diverse areas.

The president also highlighted the human rights violations being committed by India in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He urged the international community to hold India accountable and help resolve the dispute in accordance with the UNSC resolutions.

He also apprised the envoys about the grave humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and urged the international community to support the people of Afghanistan to save them from human catastrophe.

President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday said that the establishment of the community colleges was vital to meet the educational and skill requirements of the country.

The president, chairing a follow-up meeting on the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), said Pakistan was facing a shortage of skilled workforce therefore the higher educational and technical institutions needed to focus on the skill development of human resources.

Rector of the NUML, Major General (Rtd) Muhammad Jaffer gave a presentation about the role of the university in the promotion of higher education in the country.

He informed that the university was introducing the conceptual approach to learning to inculcate critical and analytical thinking skills among students.

The Rector apprised the meeting that 22,000 students were currently studying in different disciplines.

He also highlighted the measures taken for the development of IT infrastructure, integration of IT in language learning and translation, and the promotion of high-quality research.

President Alvi said that the world had shifted to the online mode of education and the educational institutions needed to extensively invest in developing their IT infrastructure to promote online education.

He underlined the need for increasing the quantum of online education and the number of virtual classes to reduce the cost of education, particularly for students belonging to far-flung areas of the country.

The president asked the management of the university to take steps for the preservation and revival of dying languages.

President Alvi also appreciated the research initiatives taken by the university as well as the steps taken to develop IT infrastructure.