TIBCAS Held the 25<sup>th</sup> Meeting of COMSATS Coordinating Council----Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology Chinese Academy of Sciences

The 25th Meeting of Coordinating Council of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) was held on 10-12 September 2024 by Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Around 60 participants including the members of COMSATS Coordinating Council, representatives of its Technical Advisory Committee as well as representatives of partner organizations attended the meeting.

During the opening ceremony held on 10th September, Prof. Dr. XIANG Hua, the Legal Representative and Deputy Director-General of TIBCAS, delivered a Welcome Address and briefly introduced the major achievements made by TIBCAS in South-South cooperation after joining the COMSATS Network. He expressed TIBCAS’ commitments to promoting S&T collaborations with BRI partner countries within the framework of COMSATS, especially under the platform of COMSATS Joint Centre for Industrial Biotechnology (CCIB) that was jointly established by TIBCAS and COMSATS. He appreciated the long-term support and guidance of China Science and Technology Exchange Center (CSTEC), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST), the Bureau of International Cooperation, CAS, and the related departments in Tianjin Municipal People’s Government.

Ambassador Dr. M. Nafees Zakaria, the Executive Director of COMSATS, noted that COMSATS, the only S&T inter-government organization with the members and CoEs spread over Asia, Africa, Latin America & Europe, is a proponent of global S&T collaboration and development. Noting that COMSATS’ Centres of Excellence have expertise in various fields of science, including Biotechnology, ICTs, Clean Energy, Nanotechnology, Material Sciences, he urged the Member States to invest more in R&D and capacity building in order to realize sustainable economic and social development.

Prof. Dr. Ashraf Shaalan, Chairperson, COMSATS Coordinating Council from National Research Centre (NRC), Egypt, welcomed the participants and expressed gratitude to the organizing team at TIBCAS. He hoped that the meeting would result in deepening understanding among the S&T Network Members, and desired to build greater cooperation amongst them.

Prof. Dr. LIU Weidong, the Director-General of Bureau of International Cooperation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China, highlighted that the world, especially the Global South, is faced with many common challenges, and that biomanufacturing can provide grounds to address sustainable development challenges and greatly promote green economic growth in developing countries. He praised that CCIB provided an important platform for collaboration in the field of biomanufacturing in the Global South. He stated that CAS attaches great importance to international cooperation and in view of this launched the Alliance of National and International Science Organizations for the Belt and Road Regions (ANSO) to promote S&T development and application of technologies that benefit people’s livelihood and green development in the Belt and Road Regions. He noted that CAS would continue to support the collaboration between ANSO and COMSATS.

Mr. DONG Keqin, the Director of Division of Multilateral Cooperation, CSTEC, MOST, elucidated that South-South Cooperation is an indispensable part of international multilateral development cooperation. He praised that, as the core Institute in Biomanufacturing of China, TIBCAS has carried out a series of effective S&T collaborations and capacity building activities with COMSATS Network members in the related field, and played an active role in strengthening the scientific and technological capacity of developing countries and S&T people-to-people exchange. He also expressed CSTEC’s attention and support to the cooperation between TIBCAS and other COMSATS Network members.

In the meeting, heads/representatives of 16 Centres of Excellence, including TIBCAS, National Research Centre (NRC), Egypt, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU), Kazakhstan, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember-Indonesia (ITS), Indonesia, Tanzania Industrial Research and Development Organization (TIRDO), Tanzania, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK), Turkiye, and Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), Sri Lanka, made presentations on their programmes and activities supporting South-South Cooperation and achievement of UN SDGs. The representatives of these Centres also shared future plans for COMSATS’ Network. Meanwhile, the representatives of international partner organizations, i.e. ANSO, Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF), the South Centre, Economic Cooperation Organization Science Foundation (ECOSF), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and The International Network for SMEs (INSME), highlighted their programmatic activities and the ways in which the Network members can benefit from their ongoing programmes and expertise. Also, Prof. Dr. SUN Jibin, the Founding Director of CCIB, introduced CCIB’s background, its achievements on demand-driven South-South collaborations and future plans. Besides, the participants discussed extensively on the new initiatives, capacity building activities, as well as held discussion on the venue and schedule for the next Council meeting.

On the occasion of the UN Day for South-South Cooperation, a side event with the theme of “Biomanufacturing Cooperation for a Better Tomorrow in the Global South” was held on 12th September 2024. Prof. Dr. SUN, in his introductory remarks, highlighted the status and trends of S&T innovation in biomanufacturing and international communities’ actions in this field. He highlighted the vital role of biomanufacturing in the sustainable development of COMSATS Member States. He also highlighted the opportunities and challenges for the Member States to develop biomanufacturing. Prof. Dr. SUN made suggestions on how to promote South-South cooperation in biomanufacturing using the platform of CCIB. Later, the participants held in-depth discussion around his ideas.

During the meeting, the participants were also provided opportunity to visit the Technology Exhibition Hall of TIBCAS and witness first-hand the core facilities of National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology. The Council Meeting not only fostered further understanding among the CoEs of COMSATS and laid the foundation for their future collaboration, but also promoted South-South S&T exchange and cooperation in the field of biomanufacturing, which contributes to high-quality and sustainable development in the Global South and the realization of the UN SDGs.

Background:

COMSATS is an inter-governmental organization established in 1994, which strives to promote S&T based South-South cooperation among the developing countries with an aim to catalyze their sustainable socio-economic development. At present, COMSATS has 27 Member States and operates a Network of S&T Centres of Excellence having 25 members from around the globe. Under the nomination of the MOST of China, TIBCAS became the 22nd Centre of Excellence of COMSATS in 2018. As a joint Centre, established by TIBCAS and COMSATS in 2021, CCIB made a series of achievements in collaborative research on applicable technology, talent cultivation and capacity building, and was selected as the Good Practice in South-South Cooperation & Triangular Cooperation by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and into the Enhancing Scientific Research Capacities Exhibition in the 1st Belt and Road Conference on the Science and Technology Exchange.

The Coordinating Council meeting provides an important platform to the organization in promoting deeper understanding among the Council members and thus encourage greater international cooperation. In 2019, TIBCAS held the 22nd meeting of the Council, while this year it held the 25th Meeting with the support of MOST of China and CAS.