SIALKOT - Stressing upon the importance of building quality institutions of higher learning, Prime Minister Imran Khan has pledged to make maximum investment for promotion of higher education.

Addressing the participants, after laying the foundation stone of a new campus of Govt. College for Women University (GCWU) Sialkot here Wednesday, he said government will ensure value addition of the youths for national development through adoption and promotion of advanced education especially in information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) enabling Pakistan to stand in a dignified way in the comity of developed nations.

The premier said that the world was developing and showing amazing progress in every sphere of life. But little attention was paid towards promotion of higher education in Pakistan due to which Pakistan was far behind than the educational institutions of developed nations.

"A tiny country like Singapore has exports worth $313 billion while Pakistan, with a population of 210 million, has exports of hardly $24 billion," Khan said. He noted that the annual budget of a university in Singapore was greater than that of all Pakistani varsities combined.

He said due to non-establishment of quality institutions of higher learning, the Pakistani exports remained thin. The prime minister said advancement of higher education could help promote Pakistani exports. The prime minister said that government would soon steer the country out of all the prevailing crises.

He said government would ensure maximum investment in promotion of quality education to secure the future of next generations. The premier said that youths were the precious asset of the nation and they will be provided maximum opportunities to serve the nation and the country in a better way in future.

Earlier, the PM made the groundbreaking for establishment of a new campus of GCWU Sialkot.