PESHAWAR
\nKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi on Wednesday inaugurated a Centre of Excellence for Digital and High Tech Skills at the Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences), Hayatabad, and held talks with a visiting European Union delegation on cooperation and regional issues.
\nThe EU delegation, led by Ambassador Raimundas Karoblis, discussed bilateral cooperation, development partnerships and the regional situation, including Afghanistan. The chief minister emphasised that dialogue remained the only viable solution to challenges with Afghanistan, noting the deep historical, cultural and economic ties between the two sides.
\nHe said instability in Afghanistan had adversely affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly its youth, and pointed out that cross-border trade, previously exceeding Rs10 billion annually, had suffered due to recent tensions and border closures.
\nHighlighting the provincial government\u2019s priorities, Mr Afridi said investment in youth development and education remained central to policy, in line with the vision of PTI founder Imran Khan. He referred to an increased education budget, curriculum reforms and initiatives such as the Education Card to support free intermediate education for female students and orphans.
\nWelcoming the EU\u2019s support for the Centre of Excellence, the chief minister termed it a milestone initiative aimed at equipping youth with market-relevant digital skills. The EU ambassador said technology and skills development were key areas of cooperation and expressed interest in expanding development initiatives in the province.
\nAddressing the inaugural ceremony, the chief minister also spoke about governance reforms, stating that merit, transparency and accountability were central to the government\u2019s agenda. He said recruitment of teachers and doctors was being carried out on merit and that steps were being taken to eliminate corruption and inefficiencies.
\nHe announced plans for a new youth policy, expanded internship programmes and additional scholarships, adding that the government would support deserving students in pursuing education.
\nEarlier, officials briefed participants that the Centre of Excellence had been established through collaboration between the European Union, the British Council, KP-TEVTA and the Education Department of Gilgit-Baltistan.
\nThe project aims to provide training in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, software development, digital marketing and cybersecurity, with a focus on equipping youth, particularly women, with internationally recognised skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi on Wednesday inaugurated a Centre of Excellence for Digital and High Tech Skills at the Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences), Hayatabad, and held talks with a visiting European Union delegation on cooperation and regional issues. The EU delegation, led by Ambassador Raimundas Karoblis, discussed bilateral cooperation, development …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":97020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97026,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97009\/revisions\/97026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}