CHANDIGARH AUGUST 19: Member of Parliament from British Columbia (Canada) Mr. Ed Fast today offered services to work together with the Punjab government in upgrading technical skills and knowledge through Experts’ and Teachers’ exchange programmes in the sphere of primary & secondary education, technical education, skill development, tele-medicine, bio-technology, nano-technology and information technology.
Mr. Fast made this offer here today during a call on meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal at latter residence.
Taking part in the deliberations, the Chief Minister informed Mr. Ed Fast that Punjabis shared a special bonding with British Columbia-one of the most prosperous and advanced provinces in Canada. Punjabis had a strong presence there and it was a matter of great satisfaction to observe that Punjabis had always contributed immensely towards the economic prosperity of the land of their adoption.
Mr. Badal apprised the visiting Member Parliament that the Punjab government had already inked a memorandum of understanding with British Columbia for bilateral cooperation in the field of education leading further to employment. The Chief Minister sought Mr. Fast’s cooperation for the skill development programme in the state besides the absorption of quality manpower from the state in the industry of British Columbia. He also requested Mr. Fast to consider Punjab as their number one choice for importing manpower and also ease out the procedure for migration of skilled youth from Punjab to province of British Columbia.
Mr. Fast assured the Chief Minister that British Columbia was looking forward for collaboration with the Punjabi University Patiala, Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, Technical University Jalandhar, Panjab University Chandigarh and Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana to upgrade the standard of education and improve the chances of employability of students from Punjab to Canada.
Mr. Fast and her Executive Assistant Ms. Anju Gill were accompanied by Member Parliament Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa. Cooperation Minister Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, Media Advisor to Chief Minister Harcharan Bains and Principal Secretary to Chief Minister DS Guru were also present on the occasion.