ASTANA (Kazakhstan), Sep 10 (APP): President Mamnoon Hussain Sunday proposed the members of the Organizations of the Islamic Cooperation Organization (OIC) to launch multilateral joint projects in the fields of space technology, banking, astronomy, glaciology and water management.
Addressing the working session of the OIC’s first summit on science and technology here at Kazakh capital, the president said the launch of such a joint projects would help member states benefitting from one another’s research works cost-effectively.
The president, who arrived here on four-day visit, earlier also addressed the opening session of the summit.
He said Pakistan was planning to send teams of scientists to Antarctica for research and offered the Islamic states to join the project.
During the working session, the leaders from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan and others deliberated over the theme: Emerging relations between science and society in 21st century.”
The president hoped that the OIC summit would provide the member states an opportunity to take advantage of one another’s expertise.
He told the gathering that Pakistan had devised a comprehensive long-term Vision 2025 Plan to achieve multifaceted agricultural production and the government had extended allout support to the entities enforcing the plan.
President Mamnoon said in the second phase of the plan, links would be established among the educational and research organizations so that both the sectors could perform well in a coordinated manner.
He said COMSTECHs development plan called STI 2026 would help formulation of comprehensive policies for sustainable development and building industrial infrastructure. The plan which would be presented before the House today also covered the actions to eliminate poverty, ensure food security, endemic and epidemic diseases, and climate change.
He said besides adopting the STI 2026, an effective mechanism for financial and administrative assistance of COMSTECH was also required.
He said to make other Islamic states benefit from the outcomes of Pakistan’s Vision 2025, the government would grant scholarships to 100 students of Intermediate to PhD from OIC states in the disciplines of engineering, medicine and agricultural education.
The president told the gathering that Pakistan would also impart training to scientists from OIC countries in the fields of agriculture, medicine, and industry while observing the IAEA guidelines, beside training the technical workforce.
APP/Zaheer
