Fawad Chaudhry urges COMSATS’ member states to deal collaboratively with COVID pandemic

Islamabad:Pakistan has established cooperative relationships in S&T with a number of countries and establishment of various Centers of Excellence in Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Artificial Intelligence and Allied Technologies, Advanced Technologies in Biomedical Materials, Mineral Resources Engineering, Agriculture Food Technologies and Railway Engineering are underway, all under the Ministry’s Knowledge Economy Initiative.

These remarks were a part of the fourth Ministerial-level Consultative Committee Meeting of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) headed by the Federal Minister for S&T, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, with participation of 30 delegates from 19 countries. The meeting was an august gathering of three Ministers, a vice minister and other high-level government officials belonging to Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen, Turkey, Bangladesh, Somalia, Zimbabwe, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Uganda. The participants deliberated on a 9-point agenda during the meeting virtually hosted from COMSATS Secretariat, Islamabad.

In his message, the Chairperson highlighted Pakistan, the host country of COMSATS Secretariat, as an ardent supporter of COMSATS’ mandate since inception. “Working in close proximity of the Secretariat, my Ministry is a witness to the hard work and devotion with which the organization is striving towards its mission at the highest and the grass-root levels alike”, remarked the Minister.

Mr. Fawad lauded COMSATS’ efforts for implementing the decision of the previous meeting and urged his counterparts in the 26 other Member States to duly support COMSATS’ operations by all means, especially more regular Annual Membership Contributions. He urged COMSATS’ Member States to work collaboratively for dealing with the menace of COVID-19 pandemic and help address the associated socio-economic challenges.

Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary to the Committee and Executive Director COMSATS, Dr. S.M. Junaid Zaidi, remarked that scientific collaboration is an important area for South-South and triangular cooperation. He encouraged the Member States to use COMSATS’ forum to incubate partnerships and find new innovation approaches to support and speed up the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).