OIC body, HEC arrange science workshop

ISLAMABAD - Organisation of the Islamic Conference Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation COMSTECH, in collaboration with Higher Education Commission of Pakistan arranged two workshops for participants from the OIC member states.
A joint inaugural session of the workshop was held here on Monday. The session was presided over by Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, COMSTECH Coordinator General and Chairman Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
Addressing the multi-cultural gathering, Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, stressed the need for strong intellectual property regime for progress in the technology and termed private sector research and development projects crucial for real advancement on the technology front. He apprised the scientific community of importance of foresight in the technology and disclosed that only one country, Turkey, among the Muslim nations has done technology foresight exercises, which have resulted in revolutionary changes for Turkish development sectors.
He said Pakistan needs such exercises to cope up with future changes in science and technology trends.
Atta-ur-Rahman opined that political will is must for creating a suitable environment for the application of science and technology towards development.
He advocated for increase in R&D spending. “We need to develop our own science and technology infrastructure as lack of ingenious capabilities causes wastage of resourcesâ€�, he added.  While speaking on the importance of technology foresight Dr STK Naim COMSTECH Consultant said’ “Foresight is an activity used for longer term planning and a systematic means of assessing scientific and technological developments which could have strong impact on industrial competitiveness, wealth creation and quality of lifeâ€�.