ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Friday inaugurated the Land Information and Management System-Centre of Excellence (LIMS-CoE), which is expected to enhance modern agricultural farming and improve the uncultivated state. It will revolutionize the agricultural sector in the country by using more than 9 million hectares of land.
Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir, ministers, provincial chief secretaries, agricultural experts and military officers also participated in the inauguration ceremony.
The launch of LIMS-CoE, a first-of-its-kind initiative, aims to enhance food security, improve agricultural exports and reduce import burden on the national exchequer by converting millions of acres of uncultivated/low-yielding land in the country. The system will help improve agricultural productivity through innovative technologies and sustainable agricultural practices based on the agro-ecological potential of the land, while ensuring the well-being of rural communities and environmental protection.
Saudi Arabia has provided an initial investment of $500 million to set up the facility and large foreign investment in the sector is expected in the near future. “As far as the high efficiency irrigation system is concerned, Saudi Arabia has already given us [Pakistan] $500 million,” LIMS-CoE chief Major General Shahid Nazir told reporters at a briefing on Thursday. “With the aim of promoting modern agricultural farming using more than 9 million hectares of uncultivated waste estate land, LISM-CoE has been established under the Director General Strategic Projects of Pakistan Army,” he added.
According to the official, the state-of-the-art system will revolutionize the means of driving agricultural development through real-time information on land, crops, weather, water resources and pest management under one roof.
The center will work with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and China on various agricultural projects to increase Pakistan’s exports. He said that in the next 3-4 days, a high-level delegation from Saudi Arabia is coming to Pakistan to seek such investments in four major sectors including agriculture, mines and minerals, information technology (IT) and defense production. . He added that this would be done under the umbrella of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) which was recently established to revive the Pakistani economy.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz also inaugurated a laptop program for youth here on Friday. Addressing the launching ceremony, he said that it has been his mission to provide laptop machines to every youth so that they can progress successfully in their respective fields. He said that for young and intelligent students laptop is just a machine but for them it is a mission to give bright future to the country.
He said that the government will empower the youth to ensure the development and prosperity of Pakistan. He said that the youth are capable of changing the destiny of the country with their hard work and dedication and can leave the neighboring country far behind in terms of economic development and prosperity. He said the laptop helped students a lot during the days of the Covid pandemic when they took online classes from home and also earned their bread and butter by working as freelancers.
He said that as Chief Minister of Punjab, he had provided scholarships to talented youth under the Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF) and the beneficiaries of these programs are now serving the country in various fields including health, IT and engineering. have been.
He said that apart from the 100,000 laptops approved for the previous financial year, he has also arranged for another 100,000 laptops, which have been approved for the current financial year. He said that the distribution of laptops will be done purely on merit and no influence will be accepted in this regard. For the youth in rural areas, he said the government has earmarked Rs 5 billion for providing agricultural loans, while another Rs 5 billion has been earmarked for providing skill-based training to the youth.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has empowered the youth in every era. He said that since 2011, 1 million laptops have been distributed to talented students, while loans of more than 100 billion rupees have also been provided to empower the youth. He said that the Prime Minister will distribute 100,000 laptops to students in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister directed the concerned authorities to formulate a comprehensive policy to end the smuggling of tires and spare parts at the earliest.
The Prime Minister met a delegation of Service Long March Tires and Chuang Long March Tires led by their chairman Li Kung Wen, also directed the relevant authorities to take effective measures to stop tire smuggling.
He told the delegation that being a time-tested friend, China has always supported Pakistan like a brother in every difficult time. He assured the delegation that the government would provide all possible support to the Chinese investors to invest in Pakistan.
