The made-in-Pakistan coronavirus testing kit will cost just Rs2,000 ($13), says Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain.

Addressing a three-day workshop on challenges of food security, nutrition and healthcare in Islamabad on Sunday, Fawad said that more than 500 research institutions are currently working in Pakistan, but there is a lack of coordination among them. He said that 70 percent of UK born Pakistani scientists have returned to Pakistan. He said the Comsats University has made artificial skin and it would be marketed at the commercial level soon. He said the budget for science societies in Pakistan ranges between Rs4 million and Rs50 million each.

The federal minister said the budget for the Ministry of Science and Technology was increased by 600 percent last time and there was a plan to increase the ministry’s budget by 1,300 percent the next time. He said that scholarships worth Rs12 billion would be distributed this year. He said that Pakistan imports $3 billion chemicals and $2 billion pulses every year; it needs to review its priorities. He said that Pakistan would soon become the first country in South Asia to make buses, which will run on batteries.