ISLAMABAD:Representatives of 17 OIC member states on Thursday endorsed the proposal for establishing a ministerial platform for jointly undertaking science, technology and innovation initiatives.
This platform which is an initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan is identified as the OIC-15 Dialogue Platform and constitutes fifteen plus countries of the OIC that are leading the others in science and technology.
This was decided during the Senior Officials Meeting of OIC-15 held at COMSTECH.
The meeting was of hybrid nature and was attended physically by the representatives of the OIC General Secretariat, COMSTECH, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, and Morocco, while Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Cameroon and UAE participated virtually.
The member countries discussed in detail the objectives, terms of reference, and working procedures of the OIC-15 and recommended these for adoption by the Ministerial Committee.
The OIC-15 will serve as a platform where bilateral or multilateral initiatives of STI may be presented for cooperative actions to be implemented through COMSTECH-the OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation that is hosted by Pakistan.
The meeting was jointly organized by the Republic of Kazakhstan, COMSTECH and the OIC General Secretariat.
Speaking on the occasion, the Assistant Secretary General (Science and Technology) OIC, Ambassador Askar Mussinov lauded the outcome of the meeting as the first step towards a very important initiative for scientific uplift and cooperation.
The Coordinator-General, COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary emphasized that his organization will make every effort to practically realize the initiatives endorsed by the member states and he looks forward to them sharing the human and material resources required for major initiatives.
The representative of the government of Kazakhstan thanked all the participants for their attendance and contribution to the meeting and announced that Kazakhstan will hold the first Ministerial Meeting of the OIC-15 Dialogue Platform in Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan in the first half of 2023.