MESSAGE COMSATS – Promoting ST&I led Sustainable Development

TheCommission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS; www.comsats.org) was established in 1994 in recognition of the increasingly widening gap of scientific knowledge and economic development between the global North and the global South.

ThISday marks a significant milestone in the history of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan _ the founding member and host of 27 countries’ Intergovernmental Organization, COMSATS. Pakistani nation at home and abroad celebrates adoption of Pakistan Resolution on 23rd March 1940 as PAKISTAN DAY. On this auspicious occasion of the 83rd Anniversary of Pakistan Day, I avail myself of this opportunity to extend warm felicitations, on behalf of COMSATS’ fraternity, to the Government and people of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Pakistan not only supported the establishment of the Commission in 1994, but also has been graciously hosting the permanent Secretariat of the Commission in Islamabad. COMSATS enjoys tight-knit relations with the Government of Pakistan, which has supported launching of useful initiatives that have been benefiting a large number of Pakistani students, scholars, scientists as well as policy makers.

Achieving sustainability in development demands generation and use of new knowledge, particularly in the realms of science, technology and innovation. The only way to continuously produce and replenish this knowledge is through research and development. The developing nations must therefore work together for long-term sustainability and technological advancement by devising effective national policies and action plans.

COMSATS through its various forums, particularly the Network of International S&T Centres of excellence, provides a vast range of avenues for international cooperation, scientific capacity building, and pooling of human and technological resources for the benefit of the Member States. excellence in science, technology and innovation can catalyze national development and ensure rapid progress in diverse fields with significant bearing on the economy. COMSATS remains committed to supporting Pakistan and other Member States in their pursuit of sustainable development through scientific and technological means.

The idea of COMSATS was put forward by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Dr. Abdus Salam, a world-renowned Pakistani Scientist and Theoretical Physicist, with an overriding aim of facilitating sustainable socio-economic development in the South through sharing of indigenous capacities in science and technology.

Pakistan is hosting the permanent Secretariat of the COMSATS, in Islamabad. The Government of Pakistan organized and hosted COMSATS’ Foundation Meeting on 45 October 1994 in Islamabad, which was attended by representatives of 36 countries. The Prime Minister of Pakistan was elected as the first Chairperson of COMSATS. Currently, the Chairperson of COMSATS is the President of Republic of Ghana, h.e. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The key objectives of COMSATS, inter alia, are: to sensitize the countries in the South to the centrality of science and technology in the development process, adequate resource allocation for research and development, and integration of science and technology in the national and regional development plans; to support major initiatives designed to promote indigenous capacity in science and technology for science-led sustainable development; to provide leadership and support for NorthSouth and South-South cooperative schemes in education, training and research; and to support the relevant programmes and initiatives of major scientific organisations working for the development and promotion of science and technology in the South.

The membership of COMSATS is open to all developing countries. Currently, the COMSATS Membership comprises 13 countries from Asia, 12 from Africa and two from Latin America. These are: Bangladesh, China, Colombia, egypt, The Gambia, Ghana, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea (D.P.R.), Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Senegal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkiye, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe. COMSATS derives strength from its Network of 24 S&T Centres of excellence (Coes). Coes are the main resource-base for the organization’s programmes and activities in the Member States.

Current Chairperson of the Council is Prof. Ashraf h. Shaalan. The Network includes two

Centres of excellence in Pakistan; the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), and the COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI). The Council held its 24th Meeting in Karachi in January 2023 charting a speedy way forward with major thrust on R&D, support to the researchers, academics, entrepreneurship, innovations and venture into linking the researches with the industry.

The statutory bodies of COMSATS, i.e., General Meeting, the Consultative Committee, the Coordinating Council and the Secretariat administer the main functioning of COMSATS. The General Meeting of the Commission is participated at the summit level, two of which were hosted by the Government of Pakistan. The Consultative Committee comprises of the Ministers/high officials/representatives of the relevant focal ministries/ government departments of the Member States (Pakistan holds the Chair of the Consultative Committee). The Coordinating Council comprises of the heads of designated Centres of excellence that are part of COMSATS’ Network. A Technical Advisory Committee also supports COMSATS with its valuable advice, as and when sought. Ambassador Dr. Mohammad Nafees Zakaria is the incumbent executive Director of COMSATS Secretariat.

COMSATS maintains cordial working relations with the Governments of Member States and has been contributing to their national development, mainly by building capacities of their scientists, researchers, scholars, students, as well as policy makers. COMSATS works in partnership with a number of international and intergovernmental organizations, following its organizational objectives, as well as the global agenda set out by the world community in the form of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Over the years, COMSATS has implemented various programmes of science and technology. Realizing that there was no Internet related infrastructure in Pakistan, the organization established the COMSATS Internet Services (CIS) in 1996. CIS is now the most diversified ISP of Pakistan offering technical services and solutions through wireless/ ondemand broadband, domain & web hosting, Data Center services, video conferencing, website designing and development, Search engine Optimization, Virtual Private Servers, networking, IT training, and Internet related research facilities. CIS has presence and operations in 19 cities across the country, and possesses a state-of-the-art training center.

In order to deliver technical and higher education in the field of information technology, COMSATS established the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) in Islamabad in 1998. The Institute has now been renamed as COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) after attaining the status of public sector university and has campuses in seven cities of Pakistan. It is among the top five universities of Pakistan, and at top most position in the field of ‘Computer Science and Information Technology’. The University offers over 100 academics programs with a faculty strength of over 2,100, including over 1,100 PhDs. The university is catering to the educational needs of the country and has produced over 90,000 graduates with current enrollment over 34,000. Under a program with COMSATS, CUI has a standing offer of 100 post-graduate scholarships to students from COMSATS Member States meeting its criterion.

Another flagship project of COMSATS in Pakistan, COMSATS Telehealth program, is the pioneer of Tele-health services in Pakistan, which started back in 2001 as a pilot-project with the utilization of indigenous resources to provide cost-effective solution and access to health care service to the needy and marginalized. Currently, around 25 Tele-clinics in Balochistan are providing tele-consultations to the people living in remote areas. COMSATS has been organizing capacity building activities in different fields of science and technology supporting in its member states. Over the years, COMSATS organized, co-organized and sponsored more than 400 capacity building events in its member states. Capacity building events held by COMSATS can be broadly categorized in the following: Scientific and Technological education, R&D; environment/ Climate Change; Industrial development; New technologies; ICTs; health; Agriculture/ food security; energy/ Renewable energy Technologies; and economy.

COMSATS has been facilitating joint research activities in various fields of science and technology in order to collectively address the common challenges being faced by the Member States. The focused fields included ICTs; Agriculture, Food Security and Biotechnology; Natural Products Sciences; Renewable energy; Mathematical Modeling; and Climate Change and environmental Protection. In view of the world focus on Climate Change, COMSATS established the COMSATS Centre for Climate & Sustainability (CCCS) in August 2018. CCCS serves as a platform to connect member countries to identify potential areas of collaboration, share knowledge and expertise and offer their perspectives and solutions in addressing common challenges in the framework of the UN 2030 Development Agenda. The Centre currently has membership of 20 countries along with 24 institutions belonging to different regions of the world. So far CCCS has organized 18 webinars on a range of subjects in the context of the agreed SDGs. CCCS webinars have generated a lot of interest at the regional and international levels.

COMSATS Joint Centre for Industrial Biotechnology (CCIB) was established in April 2021, at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB), under the framework of the National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology (NC SynBio) of China, in order to promote meaningful cooperation among the Member States in industrial biotechnology. CCIB has so far initiated five high-level joint R&D projects involving over 10 research teams from the Member States; supported 14 young visiting scholars; published four Science Citation Index (SCI) papers; and applied two patents. CCIB has also significantly contributed towards capacity-building of the Member States by holding seven workshops/training courses in the areas of Bio-medicine; Bioagriculture; Bio-energy; Bio-chemicals and Bio-materials.

COMSATS employing various cooperation mechanisms, remains committed to its mission of scientific and technological progress of the developing world.