COMSTECH, in collaboration with the Yemen Embassy and Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Government of Yemen Monday announced COMSTECH-CCoE Yemen Program awarding 50 fellowships to the Yemen scientists in the fields of public health and medical technology.
This was announced as a part of Science Diplomacy Initiatives of COMSTECH and Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a press conference held at the COMSTECH-the OIC Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation on Monday.
The press conference was addressed by the Ambassador of Yemen, Mohammed Motahar Alashabi, the coordinator general COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Vice Chancellor, Health Services Academy (HSA), Prof. Dr. Shahzad Ali Khan, Chairman Board of Governors, University of Lahore (UoL), Mr. Awais Raoof, Co-Director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, and Mr. Ali Sattar, Director, Science Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Federal Minister of Science and Technology, Agha Hassan Baloch, in his message, appreciated the efforts of the coordinator general COMSTECH and the Ambassador of Yemen for their efforts to plan and launch this important capacity building program for the Yemeni national.
He appreciated the generous offering of fully funded fellowships by UoL, HSA and ICCBS.
Mr. Baloch urged the launch of more such tailor made country specific programs for other OIC countries to cater their specific needs.
He appreciated COMSTECH programs and reiterated full support by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) to COMSTECH programs.
In his remarks, the Ambassador of Yemen thanked COMSTECH for launching this program.
He appreciated the leadership of Prof. Choudhary and his efforts for launching many capacity building programs for OIC states.
He extended felicitations from the people of Yemen to the Government of Pakistan, MoST, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the fellowships offering institutions.
He offered full support of the Yemen embassy whenever required for the coordination between COMSTECH and the Government of Yemen.
Earlier, coordinator general COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary appreciated the efforts of the Ambassador of Yemen for his interest and efforts in planning and launching this joint program.
Prof. Choudhary thanked MoST and the MoFA for their full support to this and other programs of COMSTECH.
He said that this program aims to provide opportunity to the Yemeni scholars and scientists to benefit from the excellence of the three top-class member institutions of the COMSTECH Consortium of Excellence.
He said under this program 50 fellowships will be given to Yemeni scientists to obtain training in public health and medical technologies.
Prof. Choudhary thanked ICCBS, UoL, and HSA for their generous offering of fellowships to Yemeni nationals.
Prof. Choudhary also offered two more programs to Yemen to take part and get benefit from them. These include COMSTECH Telemedicine Capacity Building Program, and COMSTECH Neuro-critical Care Program.
The Vice Chancellor of HSA, the Co-Director ICCBS and the Chairman Board of Governors, University of Lahore were present at the occasion and spoke to the media. They provided details of the fellowships being offered by their respective institutions. They appreciated COMSTECH Consortium of Excellence for launching this program.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Aala Mazhar Bukhari Director, MoFA appreciated COMSTECH initiative.
She said this program will not only help built capacity of the Yemeni people in the health technologies but also will help nurturing science diplomacy.
She said Ministry of Foreign Affairs fully supports such international programs of COMSTECH that help build and nurture diplomatic relations along with the capacity building of science and technology for the socio-economic development.
Ambassador of Yemen, Mohammed Motahar Alashabi, in his speech, said “this capacity building program is a right initiative in right time at right place”.He said that the much-needed training of Yemeni scientists in the sectors of public health and medical technology would serve as catalyst to recover from the damage due to the non-stop conflict in the area.
