Pakistani authorities have included biotechnology in the frontier sciences, which has great economic and commercial potential to revolutionise the base of developing countries.
Dr Anwar Naseem, Chairman, National Commission on Biotechnology, stated this while addressing the inaugural session of International Workshop on Biotechnology at National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), here on Monday.
He said 57 countries of Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), especially Malaysia, Iran, Syria, Egypt and Bangladesh have potential to develop manpower in Biotechnology, and the longstanding need to take an initiative to gather young scientists of developing Muslim countries and NIBGE has taken the task to train them.
"This is just a start to accomplish the dream of Biovalley as anticipated by Dr Mahatir in the OIC summit," he further remarked.
At this juncture when world is sensitive to Genetic Divide, NIBGE would definitely serve the venue to enhance scientific collaboration and long-lasting understanding of the scientific community of OIC through this platform, Dr Naseem estimated.
Dr Kausar Abdullah Malik, Member Biosciences/Admin, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), explained the PAEC achievements in the field of agriculture, medicine, and Biotechnology.
He said that the PAEC is committed to provide forum and leadership in cutting edge technologies of modern times, which specifically have a very vital role in the uplift of country's economic position.
The sincerity and concern of PAEC to raise the grounds of scientific knowledge and implications is reflected in its efforts to constitute its first institute in biotechnology in Pakistan.
"This is the recognition of our achievements and efforts at international level that the NIBGE has recently got ISO certification and is selected by UNIDO as its regional centre," Dr Kausar told the audience.
Dr Ahmad Mukhtar Khalid, Director NIBGE/Workshop Co-ordinator, outlined the importance of Biotechnology and said that science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. After achieving success in extending its arms to outer space scientists are now interested in unravelling the mysteries nature and life.
Our lofty objective at NIBGE is to disseminate the results of research and development in biotechnology for human resource developments and commercialisation. So we are proud at hosting this international event of knowledge transfer, Dr Khalid remarked.
15 participants attend this workshop from Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nepal, and Syria, while 16 participants are from all regions of Pakistan.
Dr Shoun Heaphy from UK and Dr Takahashi, Dr Watnabe of Japan, and Dr Shaukat Farooq from Doha Qatsr have been specially engaged as resource persons for this workshop. Dr Abdul Latif, Director, Biovalley of Malaysia is also expected to participate in the workshop.
Comstech (CPC), which has a plan to sponsor a series of workshops in biotechnology, sponsored this workshop and this is the first of this line.