PM stresses making investments in youth for country’s progress

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday stressed that they have to make huge investments in country’s youth because those nations had always excelled whose youth got skills and requisite degrees in different fields.

Addressing a ceremony to distribute Prime Minister’s National Innovation Awards, he expressed his pleasure over the strides made by the country’s youth in different fields by utilizing their talents and skills. The country’s future was in the safe hands and they had to make investments on the youth’s talent as they direly deserved it, he added.

The prime minister said that it was a matter of satisfaction as these young people strived during their educational careers and showed their innovative skills in IT sector, biodiesel, traffic lights, motorbike etc.

Under Prime Minister’s National Youth Award Programme, a total of Rs160 million were distributed among the 100 talented youths who had achieved innovative business projects. The prime minister said that Pakistan was facing financial challenges, but he was confident that they would steer the country out of these issues.

Such situations arose in the lives of nations, he said, stressing that the Pakistani nation has to make the determination and chart its way forward and once they had decided, then nothing could hamper it. The prime minister also expressed his gratitude to China for supporting Pakistan during the economic constraints by extending $1 billion loan facility.

During the last 75 years, he opined that foreign debts proved a hefty burden upon Pakistan whereas those nations had progressed that utilized the foreign loans and returned it on the basis of their talent, honesty and skills.

“We have to get rid of these debts as they could not thrive on the foreign debts,” he said, adding the country was gifted with precious resources. He, without naming the previous government, said he would not go into details about the man-made crises in the past. He said the challenges were faced by the nations and stressed that they should make a promise to change fate of Pakistan without seeking foreign debts.

Referring to 1971, he said they lost one part of Quaid’s Pakistan but never learnt lessons from the past. He said the leg-pulling and game of allegations must be ceased and they all have to agree upon unified national agenda as being practiced by different countries.

“The whole nation has to decide upon one national agenda with salient contours for foreign and economic policies,” he reiterated.