US to assist Pak build science, tech projects

Press Trust of India

Washington, October 28: The US is assisting Pakistan to build its science and technology capacity and 18 cooperative projects were recently launched to achieve this aim, a senior official has said.

The two countries have joined forces, contributing a combined $3 million for 2004 and $5.5 million for 2005 for projects that focus on improving education and creating technical links between the countries, he said.

Eighteen cooperative projects for 2004 were officially launched in September this year in Islamabad at the first joint committee meeting under the US-Pakistan science and technology agreement.

The projects, funded with $1 million from Pakistan --$500,000 each from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the higher education committee -- and $2 million from the US, include supplying scientific journal content to the nationwide university digital library system, and bringing telemedicine capabilities to rural areas.

"The Pakistan science and technology agreement is very exciting," said Lee Morin, deputy assistant secretary for health, space and science at the US Department of State and Leader of the American delegation to Pakistan.

"It represents a reinvigoration of an agreement that came out of a 2002 meeting at Camp David between President Bush (George W) and Pakistani President (Pervez) Musharraf. It provides a mechanism for US federal technical agencies to work with a foreign government."

The joint committee -- co-chaired by Morin and Shehryar Khan, most joint technical adviser -- reviewed more than 50 submitted proposals, the majority from Pakistan, from which the final 18 projects were chosen.

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