KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday inaugurated the upgraded Geoscience Advanced Research Laboratories (GARL) in Islamabad, a move intended to augment the country’s mineral research capability amid the government’s push for foreign investment in the area, according to an official statement.
Mining and minerals have emerged as priority sectors for Pakistan as the government seeks to attract international companies to invest in resource extraction under its broader strategy of shifting toward export-led growth.
The sectors gained institutional prominence with the establishment of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) — a hybrid civil-military body created to streamline investment and support foreign businesses interested in key industries — in June 2023.
The recent surge of international interest in Reko Diq, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits located in Pakistan’s southwest, reflects this renewed focus.
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated the upgraded Geoscience Advanced Research Laboratories (GARL) of the Geological Survey of Pakistan on Friday,” Sharif’s office said in a statement circulated after the ceremony.
