Islamabad, December 20, 2022 (PPI-OT):Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Professor Ahsan Iqbal has said that the role of Space Technology for a country’s socio-economic development is inevitable while Pakistan has to achieve a lot to compete with the world.
He made these remarks while addressing at the Seminar titled, “Role of Space Technologies for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development of Pakistan, jointly organized by the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives on Monday. The seminar was attended by the Secretary Planning Commission, Chief Economist, Chairman SUPARC and officials from the ministries and divisions.
Space Technology has become a centrepiece as every sector whether education, agriculture, health and climate change is linked with it, said the Minister, while addressing the participants of the seminar. The Minister further said that huge transformation changes are going in various fields particularly in robotic and bio technology, however, Space technology plays a key role and Pakistan needs to expedite its effort to compete with the world.
The Minister also underlined several development projects in which Space technology played a vital role in the saving of cost of the projects. Due to political instability in the country Pakistan could not achieve such targets which other countries had achieved due to their continuity of policies, said the Minister, while stressing the ministries and divisions to get benefit from the information being shared by the SUPARCO.
Secretary Ministry of Planning Commission, Syed Zafar Ali Shah in his remarks Space Technology has a key role in the country’s development and it has been placed in SDGs to get the desired results. “The Ministry always takes initiatives to bring advanced technology and Geo-Spatial Technology Cell is of the eh example which was recently established at Planning Ministry, ” he added.
He also highlighted that this technology helped the government in recent floods particularly, in Post-Disaster Need Assessment PDNA. Space technology played a vital role in confronting countless challenges in the fields of climate change, resource monitoring, disaster management and mitigation of health and education, he said.
Chief Economist, Ministry of Planning Commission Nadeem Javed gave a detailed presentation while highlighting PSDP projects which have a positive impact on space technology. “The provision of timely and reliable information through satellite will help in better decision making, ” he remarked. Chairman SUPARCO, Maj Gen Amer Nadeem in his address highlighted key initiatives related to agricultural monitoring, disaster management, forest estimation and monitoring, environment and GIS-based governance planning. Later, question and answer session was also held.
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