COMSATS Meeting on Emerging Technologies Concludes

The International meeting on ‘Emerging Technologies and Developing Countries’ concluded with an august ceremony held in Islamabad. It concluded with a pledge to introduce and harness emerging technologies in the developing countries and identified clear and practicable ways of collaboration in the identified areas of emerging technologies among third world countries. The meeting was organized by the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) and was graciously co-sponsored by the National Commission on Nano-Science and Technology (NCNST).

The conference had three themes areas where it particularly focused, namely, nanotechnology, biotechnology and information communication technology. During the course of two days 27 speakers presented their talks in a presence of healthy gathering comprising scientists, technologies, government functionaries, people from public and private sectors.

The closing ceremony was presided over by Prof Dr. Riazuddin, Director General, National Centre of Physics (NCP), Quaid-i-Azam University. The Chief Guest of the Closing Ceremony lauded the efforts of COMSATS and in particular of Dr. Hameed Ahmed Khan for organizing the event. He said that Science and Technology are inevitable for the development of the Third World. Prof. Dr. Riazuddin stressed the need to build local, regional, and international linkages through networking among research institutions in the South and the North; capacity building and technology transfer. He was of the opinion that governments should allocate more budget to R&D sector and added that equal opportunities should be provided to the poor to benefit from science and technology.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Anwar Nasim, the Chairman, National Commission on Biotechnology (Pakistan), brought to the notice of the audience that the real challenge for developing countries was to specifically identify areas in the emerging technologies that are practically beneficial. Also, Prof. Dr. Ishkandar Baharin of Malaysia France Institute, Malaysia, and Engr. Abeer Arafat of Royal Scientific Society (RSS), Jordan, emphasized on establishing virtual and physical networks among developing countries to initiate need-based collaborative projects.

Earlier, the two-day conference was inaugurated on the 28th of November by Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad, N.I., H.I., S.I., Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, Pakistan. The conference was organized with an objective to identify, clarify and address the fears and challenges of developing countries that confront them in their pursuit for emerging and new technologies. It focused on three of the foundation pillars of emerging technologies – Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information and Communication Technology. The discussion on current and emerging knowledge-based issues associated with these technologies helped in promoting science and technology, public policy dialogues and analysis at the local, national and regional levels in partnership with research institutions, civil society, governments, academia and industry.

The chief guest of the inaugural session, Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad, stressed that the advent of major emerging technologies, especially nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information and communications technology, provide principal tools for bringing about sustainable development. While touching upon the importance of application of nanotechnology in everyday lives of human beings particularly in the field of medicine, he emphasized on raising awareness in academia about the need of Earth Sciences to study the global change. Dr. Ishfaq admired COMSATS’ role in addressing various issues of global concern in the last twelve years and considerably contributing to the overall scientific and technological development of its member countries.

Highlight of inaugural session included a keynote address by Prof. Dr. Haroon Ahmed, the Advisor on Higher Education to the Government of Pakistan and the Professor Emeritus from Cambridge University-UK. He underlined the need for commercializing research and development. Dr. Hameed Ahmed Khan, H.I., S.I., the Executive Director - COMSATS was of the view that the developing countries need to assess the potential benefits and risks of the new technologies in order to position oneself to make optimal use of the emerging technologies for national development. Also in the inaugural session, Dr. N.M. Butt, S.I., Chairman, NCNST, Pakistan, and Engr. Ahmed Hassan Obeid from Sudan spoke on the occasion and indicated the need to invest in R&D sector, and highlighted the importance of raising public awareness about emerging technologies in the developing countries.

The two-day event brought useful recommendations and suggestions in the focused areas. These were finally summed up and spelled out by Dr. Hameed Ahmed Khan, in his speech at the concluding session. Some of the recommendations were as follows:

• There is a need of collective efforts in the area of fine particles science and technology for the economic development of the developing countries.
• Merger of biology and nanotechnology is essential to blend biology’s ability to assemble complex structures to build useful devices; and hence the emergence of the field of Bionanotechnology.
• Utilization of the extremely small (nano) semiconductors particles and thin films as photocatalysts is essential for environmental applications. Producing semiconducting materials and layers such as TiO2 and by non expensive and local technology such as spray pyrolysis is very important for local industry and applications.
• Acquaintance with nano-technology is very essential to learn different techniques which are being successfully used in fabrication of nanowires, fabrication of high-density low dimensional Resonant Tunneling diodes (RTDs) etc.
• Developing countries must not only know which technology is suitable and applicable to their environment, but also the extent to which the use of a particular technology is beneficial to them in a sustainable manner. The scarcity of such knowledge in the developing world promotes fear and misconceptions about potential inappropriate usage.
• Ethical issues, especially in the use of biotechnology, such as the manipulation of the human gene and the production of genetically modified food, are also a challenge which hinder the pursuit of advanced technologies.
• Lack of sufficient funds, human capacity and adequate infrastructure restricts developing nations from even attempting to create and utilize new technologies for sustainable development.