June 19, 2020: Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhry, Coordinator General COMSTECH, attended the launching Ceremony of Enabling Gig Economy by E-Commerce Skill Development Courses under umbrella of Center for Social Reconstruction Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).
Launching ceremony was held on Friday at the main campus of the Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad.
Those who participated in the discussion included Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhry, Coordinator General COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. Shoab Ahmed Khan from NUST, Dr. Shahid Mahmud, Chairman Interactive Group, Dr. Ghazna Siddiqui, Member, Task Force of Ministry of Science and Technology of Pakistan on COVID-19 and Captain (r) Bilal Hussain, Chief Executive BF Technology.
The Coordinator General COMSTECH, H.E. Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary had a virtual meeting with 22 scientists and heads of the Virology Diagnostic Laboratories in nine OIC member countries on Tuesday, June 30, 2020. The meeting was aimed at exploring avenues of intra-OIC collaboration for capacity building of the laboratories. The meeting had also provided a platform for a quick assessment of the needs of these laboratories. Realizing the demand, COMSTECH has planned to offer online training courses on testing and development of diagnostic kits for COVID-19.
A Virtual Workshop on Development of National Gene Banks in OIC Member States was conducted from Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 5-6 July 2020. The Workshop was organized by Islamic Organisation for Food Security (IOFS), Nur Sultan, Republic of Kazakhstan, in collaboration with the Government of United Arab Emirates, the General Secretariat of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), OIC Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA).
The key objective of the workshop was exploring the possibility of elaborating a regional mechanism for protection, conservation, exchange of views, human and institutional capacity development concerning plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture in OIC member states. The Workshop was attended by 162 participants representing experts/delegates from 30 OIC/IOFS member states and representatives of 11 OIC institutions and international organisations. The theme of the Workshop was: “Enhancing Food Security in OIC Member States through Agricultural Biodiversity”
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Panel presentations and discussions were held on the following themes;
Panel I: Role and Importance of Gene Banks for Conserving Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Panel II: Country Experiences on Gene Bank Development and International Collaboration.
Panel III: Overview of Global and Regional Agreements on PGRFA, including forests and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture.
Panel IV: Agricultural Bio-diversity and Resilient Food Systems
Panel V: The Challenges of Conserving and Sharing Genetic Resources
This workshop was organized by the Islamic Organization on Food Security (IOFS) and hosted by Government of the United Arab Emirates (Food Security Council) with the partnership of OIC General Secretariat, COMSTECH, IsDB, ICBA, ICARDA and FAO.
The Ambassador of Egypt, H.E. Dr. Tarek Dahroug visited COMSTECH on 14th July 2020 and had a detailed meeting with H.E. Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General COMSTECH. He was also accompanied by Mr. Ibrahim Said Ibrahim, First Secretary/ Deputy Head of Mission. Dr. S. Khurshid Hasanain, Adviser COMSTECH and Mr. Aftab Zaidi, Director HR & Administration COMSTECH also attended the meeting.
A number of avenues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation were discussed in the meeting. The Coordinator General briefed the Ambassador about new activities and programs being initiated by COMSTECH and shared a list of planned activities for 2020-21.
Federal Minister of Narcotics Control, H.E. Mr. Muhammad Azam Khan Swati and Federal Secretary, Ministry of Narcotics Control of Pakistan, Mr. A. D. Khwaja visited COMSTECH today, on 15th July 2020.
H.E. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General COMSTECH received the honourable Federal Minister and the Federal Secretary at COMSTECH Secretariat and gave a presentation on COMSTECH programs and new initiatives.
Senior Officials from COMSTECH and the Ministry of Narcotics Control also attended the meeting.
Mr. Mohammad Minhaj Khokhar, Chairman & CEO, PK2100, Technology and Business Advisor, Former Advisor to Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, Prime Minister of Malaysia, MoST and MoITT of Pakistan called on Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General, COMSTECH, discussed COVID-19 pandemic and shared a poster of preventive measures.
Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General, COMSTECH deliberated with Maj. Gen. Amer Ikram, Executive Director, National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, Pakistan and Dr. Ghazna Khalid Siddiqui MNA and Member, Task Force of Ministry of Science and Technology, Pakistan on COVID-19 in a meeting held on Thursday, 16 July, 2020 on the matters of mutual understanding and joint collaboration.
COMSTECH, in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) held a consultation Workshop for Development of a multi-national Project proposal on “Promotion of Plant Genetic Resources: Use, Varietal Development and Integration in the Seed System” on 11th of April, 2019 at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative office, NARC in Islamabad.
Representatives from governments from five OIC Member countries, namely Pakistan, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and Azerbaijan participated in the workshop. The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Country Representative of FAO, the Chairman PARC, the DG NARC and Adviser COMSTECH. One of the outcomes of the meeting was the offer from Pakistan to provide access to OIC countries to store up to 5000 germplasm at its own gene bank, as safety duplicates.
This activity is an expression of COMSTECH efforts to address food security, farm productivity and preservation of plant biodiversity as key priorities under OIC STI agenda 2026, through cooperation between Member States and development of human and technical capacity. Currently few of the OIC member states have the adequate facilities and manpower to address the vital concern of preserving the germ plasm and seed varieties of their exiting crop varieties and for exchanging and integrating new crop varieties into their own agricultural systems. This activity was held to find practical ways to address these needs led by the OIC countries that are more advanced in this domain. This effort was initiated during a meeting organized by COMSTECH in March 2018 where an OIC Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources was formed. After thorough deliberations and consultations between members of this group, led by PARC, a Concept Note for a project proposal has been developed in consultation with the FAO that outlines the goals, activities and required resources for these purposes.
In this expert level meeting presentations were made on the status of plan genetic resources’ preservation, development, and integration in the seed system of each participating country. The technical, human resource and legislative needs for these purposes were identified. In the 2nd session of the workshop the Concept Note for the Project prepared by FAO and PARC was shared with the participants. The main objective of the proposed project is to enhance technical capacity and performance of concerned institutions of both the public and private sectors to broaden their collaboration in plant genetic resource use and crop variety development facilitated by rapid flow of newly developed crop varieties in the seed system, to enhance farm productivity and ensuring food and nutritional security. Consensus was established on the basics of the proposed project and technical details such as costing, modes and sources of funding, and timelines were discussed in detail. The project proposal would be developed by the PARC in consultation with FAO and COMSTECH. Azerbaijan offered to host the next meeting of the Working Group later this year.
