ISLAMABAD: The first meeting of the senior officials representing seventeen more developed OIC member countries concluded on Friday with the adoption of the Terms of Reference and programme of the newly formed OIC-15 Dialogue Platform.
The meeting was held from December 1-2 at the COMSTECH Secretariat in Islamabad.
The OIC-15 is an initiative of the Government of Kazakhstan that aims to bring together the scientifically and technologically more advanced OIC member states to collectively pursue major technological initiatives.
The OIC-15 is being structured as a Ministerial level body that will be assisted by COMSTECH, and its Expert Groups specializing in different fields of science and technology.
The OIC-15 platform will discuss, deliberate, and decide on the various major initiatives with regard to the strategy, resources, and collective actions required for their implementation.
COMSTECH Secretariat will function as the Secretariat of the OIC-15.
The meeting also agreed to hold the first Ministerial level meeting of OIC-15 at Astana, Kazakhstan in the first half of 2023 to initiate major science and technology collaborative projects between OIC member states.
The said meeting was attended physically by Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Qatar, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, and Nigeria, while Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Jordan, and Egypt participated online.
The meeting was also attended by the Assistant Secretary General (Science and Technology) of the OIC and Kazakhstan’s Permanent Representative to the OIC.