Islamabad, 28 September 2022 (TDI): President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi has stated that the Muslim world should use its financial resources to provide quality education to its youth.
Likewise, it should endeavor to strengthen the Ummah’s intellectual capacities so that indigenous knowledge can be developed in Muslim countries.
He went on to say that science and technology were crucial in the modern world because they influenced human progress in all parts of life and could be used to alter the Muslim world.
The President made these remarks while chairing COMSTECH’s 31st Executive Committee meeting today at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
President Dr. Arif Alvi is the Chairman of the OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH).
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Hissein Brahim Taha; Secretary General of the OIC, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Education and Science; Sayasat Nurbek, Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology, and Dr. Ogbonnaya Onuh joined the meeting virtually.
Aside from them, Palestine’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology; Ishaq Sidr, Qatar’s Under Secretary of Ministry of Education; Professor Dr Ibrahim Saleh Al-Nuaimi and President of King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology; Dr. Munir M Eldesouki also took part in the event.
Sarah bin Yousif Al-Amiri, the Representative of Chair of 14th OIC Summit, Saudi Arabia, Representative of Chair of 2nd OIC Summit of Science & Technology, UAE joined meeting virtually.
The 31st Executive Committee meeting of COMSTECH’s Secretary Ministry of Science and Technology, Pakistan, and the Coordinator General of COMSTECH provided an agenda briefing.
The President of Pakistan stated during the meeting that the developed world’s knowledge transfer to recipient nations was likely to decrease due to copyright laws.
Hence making it necessary for the Muslim world to take coordinated and significant actions to foster Research & Development (R&D) in the fields of Science and Technology for generating indigenous knowledge in crucial areas.
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According to President Alvi, the Muslim world may create novel solutions under the guidance of the OIC to close the knowledge and R&D gap between the Muslim and developed worlds.
He stated that the Muslim world should continue to develop and implement distance & virtual learning modes of education to provide students with access to high-quality knowledge, information, & education, particularly in the IT sectors.
He continued by expressing that this would be especially helpful for pupils from Least Developed Countries and other nations that lagged behind in educating their young people.
President Alvi further emphasized that COMSTECH and OIC educational institutions could save their valuable resources by providing education and training to students of OIC countries through online modes of training and education.
He added that this would spare the institutions the valuable financial resources needed to build, maintain, and operate physical educational facilities.
He also stressed the need to develop close coordination among the relevant organizations of the OIC countries. This will help to strengthen cooperation in the mutual sharing of knowledge.
It will also help international educational institutions for improving their knowledge base, expertise, and skill set.
The President further urged COMSTECH to make use of its current assets to produce more money so that it might become financially independent by making those assets available to other institutions, particularly for training and educational reasons.
Along these lines, he also underlined the necessity for the member nations to provide COMSTECH with adequate and necessary financial resources.
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This ought to be done for expanding its capacity and reach along with helping it accomplish its goal of advancing science and technology in the OIC member nations.
Likewise, the President of Pakistan also underscored establishing a comprehensive financial monitoring and control system for ensuring the use of funds in a verifiable and transparent manner.
The President thanked COMSTECH for providing scholarships to young scientists so they could pursue research in their specialties, especially those from Least Developed Countries.
He complimented the COMSTECH initiative that gave talented students from OIC nations the chance to engage with Nobel laureates from other nations, saying that this would increase their comprehension, potential, and capacities.
The President also praised COMSTECH’s initiative to create thirteen organizations known as Inter Islamic Networks in specific scientific and technological disciplines, spread across nine different OIC member states.
In the same vein, President Alvi noted that COMSTECH should engage them and press their leadership to reactivate these Inter Islamic Networks because a number of them were now inert and not performing up to par.
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This would allow these institutions to accomplish their stated goals and objectives. According to the President, COMSTECH should regularly review and evaluate its vision and mission.
Similarly, it should review its aims and objectives to ensure that they are adequately in line with the advancements occurring in science and technology across the globe.
COMSTECH is a ministerial standing committee made up of ministers in charge of science and technology from the 57 OIC member states. The General Assembly of the COMSTECH meets in Islamabad every two years, and the Executive Committee meets once a year.
