China Funds Most of China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Earth Sciences (CPJRC) at Quaid-i-Azam University (QAM)

On September 30, 2019, Dr. Muhammad Ali, Vice-Chancellor of Quaid-i-Azam University stated that the China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Earth Sciences was officially established at Quaid-i-Azam University. He further stated the project was worth Rs8.4 billion and mainly funded by the Chinese Government. He thanked the Chinese Government, the Pakistani Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for the efforts to materialize the project. The center was first proposed in 2016 by the CAS. An MOU was signed in 2018 between the CAS and the HEC promising to jointly establish said center. According to the official CPJRC website, the aim of CPJRC is to study and evaluate the impact of geo-hazards and climate change on the security of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and sustainable development of the region. It will lead to development of instruments for risk analysis, hazard mitigation, resource management, ecosystem and environment protection, thereby improving socio-economic development of Pakistan. As of April 2022, the construction of the physical center seems to be ongoing, although the center has already began operation through online collaboration.

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