President ECOSF joins the Seminar- Accreditation for Quality Assurance and Socio-economic Development in OIC Countries, held at Islamabad
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COMSTECH and Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC) jointly celebrated the Accreditation Day 2022 by organizing a seminar on “Accreditation for Quality Assurance and Socio-economic Development in OIC Countries” on 3rd August 2022 at COMSTECH Secretariat –Islamabad.
The event was hybrid, attended by in-person and online participants comprising of experts, faculty, students and social workers. President ECOSF Prof. Manzoor Hussain Soomro was also amongst the distinguished attendees.
The Secretary for Ministry of Science and Technology, H.E. Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Memon participated as the chief guest in the event. He said that the event emphasized on the importance of accreditation and its role for socio-economic development. Mr. Memon further said that sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction can be achieved by augmenting the international trade which can only be possible through robust accreditation, certification, quality and testing infrastructure recognized by the relevant international forums. He appreciated COMSTECH and PNAC joint initiative to strengthen accreditation bodies to enhance the conformity and assessment quality in Pakistan and least developed African countries.
The Assistant Secretary General of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ambassador Askar Mussinov said in his message that the OIC is at the same page in celebration of the accreditation day. He further said that it is important to ensure the quality measurement for socio-economic development of any country. The accreditation and conformity assessment play major role in achieving technical competence, integrity and impartiality of organizations along with making them to conform to international standards. He further said in the message that International standards organizations also open ways to secure markets to provide sale able products.
Coordinator General COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, welcomed the participants and shed light on the importance of accreditation for OIC member states. Prof. Choudhary said that accreditation is an extremely important approach towards standardization of the processes and products, analytical and diagnostic methods, scientific research or even business. He further said that accreditation is now globally accepted as the gold standard of best practices in all forms of human endeavors. He briefed the audience about the large portfolio of S&T capacity building programs of COMSTECH in its 57 member states, as well as its role in Pakistan’s science diplomacy initiative.
The Director General PNAC, Ms. Ismat Gul Khattak gave a comprehensive talk on the importance of accreditation in achieving sustainable economic growth. She talked about the PNAC initiatives and achievements. Ms. Khattak said that PNAC can collaborate with OIC member states to provide accreditation training, develop pool of assessors, help in capacity building, share experiences, conduct joint assessment, provide accreditation services and conduct peer evaluation.
The President of Kazakhstan National Center of State Scientific and Technical Expertise (NSCTE), Prof. Dr. Adil Ibrayev, joined the session through Zoom. He talked about the aims, objectives and current achievements of NSCTE. Prof. Ibrayev offered collaboration of NSCTE with COMSTECH, PNAC and the OIC member states to work together.