QAU & COMSTECH organize Int’l symposium on Biodiversity & Health Big Data alliance meeting

Press Release,

Islamabad:     (Parliament Times)   The Federal Minister for Education Mr. Shafqat Mahmood emphasized the
importance of conserving biodiversity in the face of global climate change, and lauded the development of a
big health data repository under the Biodiversity and Big Health Data Alliance (BHBD) initiated by the Beijing
Institute of Genomics, China. The Minister was addressing as the Chief Guest the opening session of the
International Symposium on Global Biodiversity and the 2 nd Annual Meeting of the BHBD Alliance Meeting at
the Secretariat on Thursday.
The event has been organized by the National Center for Bioinformatics, Quaid-i-Azam University in
collaboration with COMSTECH and Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The
Minister expressed Pakistan’s appreciation of this scientific alliance formed in 2018 that has institutions from
China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Thailand.as founding members.
Dr. S. Khurshid Hasanain, Advisor COMSTECH (OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and
Technological Cooperation) identified the role of COMSTECH as advancing S&T in OIC member states
through cooperation, collaborations and support for scientific initiatives. Considering the crucial importance of
this alliance in providing its members access to a vast data base of biodiversity and its genomic sequencing,
COMSTECH was very keen to see other OIC member States becoming a part of this alliance. He offered
COMSTECH collaboration with BHBD Alliance, under the Ten Year Science and Technology Agenda of the
OIC.
While addressing the inaugural session Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ali, Vice Chancellor, Quaid-i-Azam University
lauded the efforts of the organizers and Chinese support for Pakistan in a variety of fields. He urged Pakistani
scientists to derive maximum benefits from this initiative by forming research collaborations and usage of the
scientific facilities offered by the alliance. Earlier Dr. Amir Ali Abbasi, Chairperson, National Center for
Bioinformatics, QAU and Focal person of the Big Health Data Alliance (BHBD) briefed the audience regarding
objectives and expected outcomes of the project.
Experts from China, Thailand, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and Malaysia participated as the keynote speakers in the
symposium. Genomics, environment, genetics, biodiversity, health big data alliance, rice biodiversity research
and fellowship initiative of CAS president were the topics covered in the presentations of the experts. More
than 115 researchers, students and faculty members from universities and research institutions of Pakistan
participated in the event. In the afternoon session the BHBD Alliance held its Second Annual Meeting and
deliberated on planning for the coming year and other technical issues.