Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal says the government is set to establish new state of the art centres of excellence to promote Artificial Intelligence, cyber security and industrial development.

Addressing a ceremony in Islamabad today, he said the government has planned to setting up new national centres, including National Center for Quantum Computing, National Center for Nanotechnology, National Center for New Manufacturing this year.

He said the establishing of these centres will help advance the country on path to face the challenges of industrial revolution.

Elucidating the performance of his party's government before 2018 general elections, the Minister for Planning and Development said the PML-N government had set up  National Center for Artificial Intelligence at NUST Islamabad, National Center for Cyber Security at Air University Islamabad, National Center for Automation and Robotics  at EME College Rawalpindi, National  Center for Big Data Cloud Computing at LUMS Lahore, National Center for GIS and Satellite Technology at Institute of Space Technology, and National Center for Applied Mathematics in Islamabad during the year 2016 to 2017.

He emphasized that at that time, nobody knew what were the AI, robotics and cyber security.

Ahsan Iqbal said geospatial capability is no longer merely a scientific discipline, but it is now an essential pillar of national security. He said modern security depends on situational awareness, border management and critical infrastructure protection.