- Turkey’s President Erdogan stresses unity among Muslim countries
ASTANA: President Mamnoon Hussain has urged the Muslim world to give due priority to science and technology to meet challenges of the new era.
He was addressing the inaugural session of the first ever summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on science and technology, which began in Kazakhstan capital Astana on Sunday.
The heads of state and government from around twenty-two Muslim states and delegates from around fifty-seven states are attending the summit.
The president said that rapid changes are taking place in the fields of science and technology on innovation basis. He emphasised the need for an enhanced focus of the Muslim world on improving the agricultural production and develop agricultural technology sector.
He said that with solid foundations of education and skilled healthy manpower, it will be possible to focus on higher education and research in emerging areas of science and technology.
Unity among the Muslim world is very imperative for development, prosperity and a safe future for the new generation, he added.
“We, as a Muslim community, have failed to pay attention to education sector for the last several centuries,” said the president.
It is very crucial for the Muslim world to be self-sufficient the in political and socio-economic sector to revive the golden era of education.
Addressing the summit, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said we cannot make progress without peace.
He said the Muslim world needs unity and integrity. The Muslim countries will have to work together against violence in Myanmar, he added
He said international community should also cooperate with us in this regard. He further said science and technology summits should be held regularly.
Addressing the summit, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev said that Islam is spreading rapidly in the world but there are two Nobel Prize-winning personalities from the Muslim world, the one is from Pakistan and the other from Egypt.
The summit will explore how the Muslim world could compete with the developed world in the field of science and technology, he concluded.
The OIC first science and technology summit is a one-day conference, having a view to “identifying priorities, goals and targets for the advancement and promotion of science, technology and innovation in the OIC Member States”, according to its official website.
The summit which will be the first-ever heads of state and government meeting to develop prospects regarding science and technology will set priorities for the member countries to achieve goals over the next decade.