ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has stressed need for ethical and morality-based research and development in biotechnology, agriculture and virology and fair and egalitarian distribution of its benefits to provide food security to entire world without discrimination between rich and poor countries.

He said biotechnologies, like gene therapy, CRISPR and Case-9 could be used to understand the human genome as well as to recognize and cure genetic diseases, adding that scientific research and breakthroughs should be shared fairly with rest of world to overcome collective woes being faced by humanity, such as disease, poverty and food security.

President expressed these views while addressing inaugural session of Kazakhstan-Pakistan-Turkiye Youth Forum on Biotechnology, at COMSTECH Secretariat here.

Inaugural session was attended by members of scientific and diplomatic community from Iraq, Turkiye, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Morocco, Russia, Jordan and Pakistan, whereas over 800 participants from 35 countries joined event virtually.

President said that the applications of biotechnology in genome editing, new breeding technologies, large-scale genomics and genomic selection in crop and livestock breeding, speed breeding for rapid genetic gain and Nanotechnology for Agriculture Applications were affecting many sectors, especially food and agriculture, and could be used to achieve food security and end world hunger.

He said our leadership needed to giveaway linear thinking patterns and put their country on exponential growth trajectory to remain relevant in fast-changing world by adopting Artificial Intelligence technology in an ethical manner and preparing their societies to willingly embrace emerging new technologies for making exponential growth.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 14 2022

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