Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — The Pakistan Executives Group, Saudi Arabia (PEG) held a seminar on “Raising through Education “ at Hilton Jeddah bringing together various constituencies that have an interest in education and the economic perspectives of raising standards through education.
The conference highlighted how Pakistan and Saudi Arabia can transform themselves for a new beginning.
Chief Guest Abdul Razak Dawood, former federal minister of commerce and CEO Descon Engineering Limited, shared his experience of being on the boards of two prestigious educational institutions of Pakistan — Namal & Lums.
He expounded how LUMS transformed from being an accredited university to becoming a research center, well trusted and funded by global organizations. His story of establishing Namal College, with an aim of equal opportunity for the marginalized rural youth of Pakistan, was applauded all round.
”Namal is the first ever college in Pakistan with 95% students on financial assistance and the college’s association with University of Bradford, provides education of international standard to this section of students. We aim to convert this into a Knowledge City, which will have deep-rooted effect on converting these rural areas. Namal is going to change the educational system. We are well aligned with the economy and we understand the importance of education in driving it.”
Dawood added, “Pakistan is an agricultural country, and keeping this in view, we are the first educational institution in Pakistan to start Green BBA and have affiliated ourselves with Wageningen University, which is, by far, the No.1 University of agriculture and forestry worldwide. From Namal College to Namal Knowledge City, it’s a continuous process, which requires a lot more efforts and funds. We need to develop many such Namals across the country.”
Zulqiurnain Ali Khan, president, PEG Saudi Arabia, praised the idea of Namal Knowledge City. While addressing the event, he cited Boston Consulting Group’s Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA) model and mapped education values in driving country’s economy.
Khan compared SEDA educational scores of top 15 economies with the rest of the world to highlight the value of education. He gave a glimpse of Swiss Vocational Educational Training model, which can be well adapted within Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to initiate skills development program for youth.
“GDP itself is not the only measure of how well the country is doing. With Vision 2030 and CPEC in Pakistan, we have to prepare ourselves for the massive change. This disruptive growth can only be leveraged with education and human development. Pakistan has much to offer to Saudi Arabia for Vision 2030. We need to identify avenues for sharing and collaborating on those main pillars which can build foundation for us in the years to come,” said Zulqiurnain.
