[ Speeches ] [ Communiqué of the Meeting ] [ List of Participants ] [ Presentations ]
The 25th Meeting of COMSATS Coordinating Council was successfully held on 10-12 September 2024, in Tianjin, China. The meeting was hosted by one of COMSATS’ Centres of Excellence in China, the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB).
This annual meeting had participation of the Council members or their representatives from 16 affiliated Centres of Excellence of COMSATS, i.e. ICCES (China), TIB (China), UTG (The Gambia), NRC (Egypt), IROST (Iran), ITS (Indonesia), RSS (Jordan), KazNU (Kazakhstan), NMC (Nigeria), ICCBS (Pakistan), CUI (Pakistan), ITI (Sri Lanka), IRCC (Sudan), HIAST (Syria), TIRDO (Tanzania), and TUBITAK (Turkiye). Moreover, representatives belonging to COMSATS’ international partner organizations, namely ANSO, ECOSF, INSME, PIDF, South Centre and TWAS, as well as members of COMSATS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) attended the meeting as observers.
The opening ceremony of the event was held on the morning of 10th September 2024 (details available at https://comsats.org/china-hosts-25th-comsats-coordinating-council-at-tianjin/).
During the technical sessions of the meeting, the Executive Director COMSATS, Ambassador Dr. M. Nafees Zakaria, presented COMSATS’ Annual Activity Report (February 2023 – September 2024) and future plans, which were endorsed and appreciated by the Council. The Coordinating Council also expressed satisfaction on the implementation status of the decisions of last (23rd) Council meeting, which was presented by Mr. Farhan Ansari, Deputy Director (Programmes), COMSATS Secretariat. The Council also approved the Minutes of the 23rd Meeting of COMSATS Coordinating Council.
The Heads/representatives of the Centres of Excellence made presentations on their activities related to South-South and Triangular Cooperation during 2023-24, including the ongoing interaction and collaboration with other Centres of Excellence, as well as future plans for COMSATS’ Network.
Moreover, a number of representatives of COMSATS’ partner international organizations made presentations, highlighted their ongoing programmes and activities as well as possibilities of collaboration with COMSATS.
The Council members deliberated upon the ongoing programmes of COMSATS, including COMSATS Joint Centre on Industrial Biotechnology (CCIB), COMSATS Centre for Climate and Sustainability (CCCS), capacity building activities, MS / PhD Scholarships and Post-doctoral Fellowships, collaborative R&D projects, COMSATS’ Digital and Global Health Program, ICT Services, etc. The Additional Director/Incharge Programmes, COMSATS Secretariat, Mr. Irfan Hayee, shed light on the ongoing programmes of COMSATS in order to aid the discussions of Council members.
The Council appreciated the holding of 29 physical or online capacity building events by COMSATS Secretariat in collaboration with Centres of Excellence and international partner organizations, which mainly benefited the scientists, researchers, academicians, engineers and technicians belonging to the Member States. The Council was pleased to learn about the progress made by the COMSATS Joint Centre on Industrial Biotechnology (CCIB), at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB) that aims to promote meaningful cooperation among the COMSATS’ Member Countries and Centres of Excellence in the field of industrial biotechnology. The progress report on CCIB was presented by its Director, Prof. Dr. Jibin Sun. The Council also noted with appreciation the activities undertaken by the COMSATS Centre for Climate and Sustainability (CCCS) with regard to building capacity of the Member States and facilitate collaboration among them in the areas relevant to climate change and sustainable development.
The Council appreciated COMSATS Secretariat’s efforts for implementing new initiatives, which were approved in the last Coordinating Council meeting, including establishment of COMSATS R&D Fund; development of COMSATS Web-portal; development of COMSATS Catalog of Products, Technologies and Services; development of COMSATS Resource Persons Directory; initiation of collaborative programmes for IT and digital skills development of youth; and provision of ICT Services to Member States. The Council appreciated the academic, research and capacity-building activities undertaken by Centres of Excellence during the period since the last Council meeting, as highlilghted in their respective presentations.
Having observed the proceedings of the Council meeting and witnessed meaningful discussions, the participating members of COMSATS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) shared their insights on how to enhance the scope and impact of COMSATS’ programmes and activities.
COMSATS Administrative and Financial Matters of COMSATS, came under review by the Council. The Additional Director (Accounts), COMSATS Secretariat, Mr. Tanveer Aslam, made a comprehensive presentation recapitulating the administrative decisions taken for efficient functioning of the Secretariat as well as related financial matters.
The Council also discussed matters related to the next meetings of COMSATS Consultative Committee and the General Meeting of the Commission. It was decided that the 26th meeting of the Coordinating Council will be hosted by the Tanzania Industrial Research and Development Organization (TIRDO), Tanzania, during 2025. The Council issued a Communiqué that inter alia, encouraged the Member Countries and Centres of Excellence to foster bilateral and multilateral partnerships in the areas relevant to sustainable development.
At the Concluding Ceremony on the second day of the meeting, Prof. Dr. Jibin Sun, expressed pleasure on successfully hosting the meeting, and thanked the attendees for their active participation. He hoped for developing impactful collaboration with other Centres of COMSATS. The Chairperson Coordinating Council thanked TIB for hosting the meeting. He pledged to work closely with COMSATS Secretariat for achieving the objectives of COMSATS Network. On the occasion, the Executive Director COMSATS thanked TIB for making excellent arrangements for hosting the meeting. He appreciated Prof. Shaalan for steering the meeting effectively. He stated that COMSATS Secretariat would make all efforts to facilitate mutually beneficial collaboration among the Network members.
The participants of the Council meeting visited the laboratories of TIB and its research facilities on 12th September 2024. Prof. Sun conducted the visit and gave briefed about the facilities at the various laboratories of TIB. The participants were shown technical facilities at the National Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Enzymes; Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology; Laboratory for Industrial Biological Systems and Bioprocessing Engineering; and Tianjin Engineering Center for Biocatalytic Technology. During visit to the laboratories, the respective researchers and scientists at the laboratories highlighted salient achievements of their labs that has created impact in the progress and development of China. The visitors took great interest in the technologies and products developed by TIB, and held in-depth exchanges with TIB scientists. The participants expressed the intent to further strengthen scientific engagement with TIB and promote bilateral and multilateral cooperation among COMSATS Member States.
