Pakistan, US moot on S&T to Lead in Wide-Ranging Cooperation
By Khalida Mazhar 'Pakistan Times' US Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON (US): Chairman Higher Education Commission, Dr Atta-ur-Rehman said Pakistan and the United States held in-depth and productive discussions at the first meeting of the joint committee on science and technology, stating that the interaction would lead to cooperation in new opportunities in wide-ranging areas.

Speaking to reporters jointly with co-chair of the committee, Dr Adam Berment, Director US National Science Foundation, he said it is for the first time that the two sides have held a high-level intense dialogue on expanding cooperation in future programmes in a variety of fields including higher education, agriculture, health, sciences, engineering and areas like innovation and entrepreneurship.

“There is a lot of enthusiasm on both sides that we need to work together to expand Pakistan-US relationship in the field; we expect that as a result of these interactions many new projects will open up between the two countries,” Dr Atta-ur-Rehman said Wednesday evening at the end of the first two-day meeting of Pakistan-US Joint Committee on Science and Technology.

The two sides also signed a memorandum of understanding for enhancing cooperation between the Higher Education Commission and various institutions working under the US Department of Agriculture.

Adam Bement said various US federal agencies described the activities that have been part of their cooperation with Pakistan in the form of projects, collaborations and exchanges. The extent of collaboration and rich scope of these programmes “provides a very good basis and platform to build on,” he added.

The chairman NSF said delegates discussed both short and long-term opportunities for expanding bilateral cooperation. The two sides will form working groups to flesh out the initiatives and have periodic reports for progress over the next two years on long-term opportunities, he said.

There will be continuing activities of working groups, which will occur frequently between the meetings of the committee through video and tele-conferencing. These working groups will carry out their work and advise the committee on implementation of projects.

“This will be an ongoing process,” Bement noted.

Pakistan and the United States created a high-level joint committee on science and technology following President George Bush’s visit to Pakistan in March 2006 when President Pervez Musharraf and the visiting leader agreed to expand bilateral cooperation in a number of areas including education and science and technology.

The co-chair from the US side said the scope of the programme is much broader than it was before. “That is a major achievement.”

The delegates from two sides discussed cooperation in the fields of agriculture, earth science (resource mapping, earthquake engineering and hydrology generally), science and technology development, standards and metrology, higher education, health research, disease prevention and renewable energy.

Bement observed the meeting also had representation from the private sector, academia, non-governmental organizations, saying it reflects the two sides want to participate in activities that lead to economic growth and general welfare of quality of life in both countries.

Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, replying to a question about cooperation in the field of health, referred to diseases like hepatitis and malaria and said there are opportunities to work together in respect of research to address these.

The two sides, he said, also discussed the use of information technology and networking, which will include high speed computing, access to the latest networks, the upgradation of existing Pakistan Educational Research Network (PERN) to the next level to have high speed computing and linkages with US institutions.

The chairman HEC said there was also discussion on improvement in digital library programme, which commenced in cooperation with the United States, provides Pakistani students access to 22,000 different journals.

Pakistan and the United States have been working together to enhance cooperation in science and technology.

The second year of science and technology programme increased Pakistan’s capacity for science and technology education and research in both public and private sectors. In 2006, eleven new projects were funded.

In January 2007, the programme announced its latest set of grant awards, which will provide more than US $ five million in support to 13 new collaborative projects in such critical development related fields as medicine, agriculture, air quality and water resources management.

In addition, three more joint projects were selected for funding in a special competition to support collaboration in earthquake-related research fields.

As these new projects are being launched, 10 more multi-year projects funded in the programme’s previous annual competition in 2006 are also continuing through 2007 and beyond thanks to support provided by US Agency for International Development, Higher Education Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Pakistan has the world’s largest Fullbright scholarship programme, under which 640 Pakistani students will study at Ivy League institutions of America , Dr Atta-ur-Rehman said.●