Islamabad, 9 February 2023 (TDI): A visiting delegation of senior civil servants from Sri Lanka called on the President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi.
During the meeting, the President urged for increased trade, economic, and educational cooperation between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
According to him, the friendly ties between the two brotherly nations need to be strengthened for the benefit of both nations.
He emphasized the need for greater collaboration in the fields of higher education, academia, and research in order to advance intercultural understanding between the citizens of the two nations.
Twenty Senior Civil Servants from Sri Lanka are currently enrolled in a two-week training course at the National Defence University (NDU) in Islamabad on international relations, peace, strategic studies, public policy, leadership, and management.
The President also urged the bureaucracy to be receptive to the needs of the public, increase system effectiveness, and increase their capacity and intelligence to ensure rapid development.
In addition to acting quickly to address their problems, he suggested that developing nations concentrate on the growth of the health and education sectors.
Also read: Pakistan, Sri Lanka reaffirm commitment to strengthening bilateral relations
The President stated that in order to create intellectual pathways for the growth of the IT sector, bureaucrats and politicians must adopt new technologies and take prompt action.
He asserted that intellectual superiority was what made nations great and that nations should concentrate on creating knowledge economies and making investments in the intellectual advancement of their citizens.
He claimed that by concentrating on the growth of the IT sector and implementing beneficial business policies, developing countries could experience faster economic growth.
The President of Pakistan also highlighted the need for greater financial discipline to address developing nations’ ongoing financial problems.
In this vein, he continued by saying that for the sake of the greater good of the nation, elites must also shoulder some of the burdens because common people cannot continually bear the brunt of poor economic decisions.
He added that in order to assist in resolving people’s problems, decision-makers and bureaucracy must adopt a new attitude and mindset.
In addition, the President also laid emphasis on the need for greater economic cooperation among the South Asian countries in response to a question about regional cooperation, which would increase prosperity for the region’s citizens.
Along these lines, President Alvi added that developing nations should avoid the current global polarization and instead concentrate on issues like improving regional cooperation and promoting literacy and health.
The training’s participants were grateful that the Higher Education Commission and NDU had taken the initiative to offer civil servants from friendly nations training opportunities.
It is pertinent to note that senior civil servants from Sri Lanka are currently enrolled in an executive training programme.
The programme aims to teach civil servants contemporary knowledge & skills to ensure good governance and effective service delivery, as well as to foster understanding between Pakistani and Sri Lankan civil services and academic institutions.
