President General Pervez Musharraf underlined on Tuesday that the Muslim countries must focus on advancement in the fields of science and technology to make use of their enormous potential for a veritable and sustainable socio-economic development.
"If we do no acquire expertise in the field of science and technology, the Muslim world will not be able to achieve the goal of all-round development and rise to its full natural and human potential", he stated during a meeting with an 11-member delegation of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) ministers and academicians.
Analysing the state of the Ummah, the President said it has been blessed with tremendous natural resources, but lagged behind the developed world, mainly due to the huge difference in the vital field of technology.
"At present, collectively, we find ourselves in backwaters of development, with socio-economic indicators being very low - what we should notice is that it is the superior technology of the developed world that has made the difference - our GDP is far behind countries, which do not even posses enough natural resources", he pointed out.
Musharraf observed that although some Muslim countries have made strides in different fields of science and technology, the OIC countries as a whole need to adopt innovative ways for their common development.
"The need is to tap our resources, pay much greater attention to higher education, concentrate on human resource development, establish centres of excellence and identify areas of expanding mutual co-operation for our collective well-being", he suggested.
In this context, he referred to students exchange programmes, saying these can be helpful for them in raising the quality of higher education and also stepping up the pace of development in the Muslim world.
The President said the OIC Committee on Science and Technology (Comstech) needs to be strengthened for efficient results, adding this could be achieved through greater economic contributions from better-off member countries.
He reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to the important OIC committee and said the country extends one million dollars to Comstech annually.
Science and Technology Minister Chaudhry Nouraiz Shakoor Khan, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman and Comestech Co-ordinator General Dr Atta-ur-Rehman were also present on the occasion.
The OIC delegates belonged to Iran, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq.
They expressed their appreciation for Pakistan's pro-active efforts in making the OIC a vibrant body to meet the future challenges.
Comments
Comments are closed.