Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik met Japanese Ambassador Akamatsu Shuichi during his visit to the Geoscience Advance Research Laboratories (GARL) of the Geological Survey of Pakistan.

The minister highlighted the longstanding scientific cooperation between Pakistan and Japan in the field of geosciences and mineral research. He appreciated the support extended by the government of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in establishing and strengthening GARL, describing it as a landmark scientific cooperation initiative between the two countries.

Malik stated that Pakistan was actively upgrading its mineral sector and was committed to replacing primitive exploration and extraction methods with advanced technologies to ensure sustainable development, improved productivity and greater value addition in the mining and mineral industry.

The ambassador appreciated the continued efforts of Pakistan to strengthen scientific infrastructure and reaffirmed Japan’s interest in promoting technical cooperation and scientific exchange in the geoscience sector.

Both sides expressed satisfaction over the ongoing technical engagement between the Geological Survey of Pakistan and JICA for possible future cooperation in advanced analytical sciences, laboratory methodologies, scientific workflows and technical capacity development. They reiterated their commitment to further enhancing Pakistan-Japan collaboration in the petroleum sector, especially geosciences and mineral research.