Daily Times

The next Science and Technology (S&T) Summit of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) would be held online in early December due to the continuing pandemic situation and organized by the Government of the United Arab Emirates.

This was revealed by the Assistant Secretary General (S&T) of the OIC, Ambassador Askar Mussinov while addressing the Steering Committee for Implementation of the OIC Science and Technology Agenda comprising the Heads of 12 OIC organs in an online meeting organized by COMSTECH.

He stated that the Summit would provide an opportunity for the member States to reaffirm their national commitments towards cooperation in science and technology and for strengthening actions at the science-policy interface. The Coordinator General of COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, shared with the members that the 1st Summit was held in 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan, and had approved a vision and broad plans for a ten-year agenda of scientific and technological development of the OIC member states.

This Agenda, known as the STI Agenda 2026, has been developed further by COMSTECH as a series of action programs and initiatives for major priority areas such as food security, health and medicine, skilled manpower development, and frontier areas of science and technology etc. COMSTECH has been coordinating the efforts of all partners in the OIC for implementing various programs in these priority areas.

Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary appreciated the role of OIC institutions in implementation of the STI Agenda 2026 and requested the institutions to forward their suggestions and achievements made in science, technology and innovation of the OIC countries in the past three years. These suggestions could form the basis of the concept paper and working documents of the upcoming Summit, he added.