The opening ceremony of the 9th term of ANSO-BIDI School for Innovation, Sustainable Development and Leadership Enhancement was held on February 26, 2025. The Centre for Environmental Economics of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CEE-UCAS), in cooperation with the Alliance of National and International Science Organizations for the Belt and Road Regions (ANSO), COMSATS and other members of ANSO Belt & Road International Innovation Development Institute Network (ANSO-BIDI Institute Network), is organizing the online training course from 26th February 2025 to 30th April 2025.

The opening ceremony included remarks by Prof. Desheng Wu, Director of the Research Centre for Environmental Economics of UCAS, followed by speeches of Heads of collaborating organizations, including Ambassador Dr. Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, Executive Director COMSATS; Prof. Ljupco Kocarev, President of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, North Macedonia; Prof. Orhan Aydin, President of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), Türkiye; Academician Avid Budeebazar, General Secretary of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mongolia; and Prof. Luis Seco, Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada.

In his address, Ambassador Dr. Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, Executive Director COMSATS, emphasized the significance of leveraging emerging technologies to address global challenges. He highlighted COMSATS’ commitment to facilitating its 27 Member States in achieving sustainable development. He noted that COMSATS has been actively organizing capacity-building programs, fostering R&D collaboration, and providing technology-based solutions to its Member States. He highlighted the recent initiatives of COMSATS in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Precision Agriculture, Genomic Sequencing, Renewable Energy, and Electric Vehicles, which reflect COMSATS’ dedication to promoting ST&I-led development. The Executive Director underscored COMSATS’ long-standing collaboration and commitment to ANSO. He appreciated the regular organizing of the ANSO-BIDI School that is contributing to capacity building of scientific leadership in the developing countries.

For the 9th term of the ANSO-BIDI School, COMSATS has nominated 63 scientists and leaders from its Member States, including Bangladesh, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Sudan, as well as COMSATS Secretariat.

The training course comprises of 10 weekly training modules. The topics being covered by the training course, inter alia, include Supply Chain and Sustainable Development; Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Green Finance; Computer Science and Engineering; and Innovation, Environment and Sustainability.

The resource persons/experts, belonging to Australia, USA, Sweden, Belgium, Brazil, Poland, Denmark, Canada, Thailand, Switzerland and Germany, are conducting the training course.