12^th Governing Council of the NAM S&T Centre meets at Cairo, Egypt on 16-17 November 2009

The 12^th meeting of the Governing Council (GC) of the NAM S&T Centre was held in Cairo on 16^th-17^th November 2009 at the invitation of the Academy of Scientific Research & Technology (ASRT) of Egypt. The meeting was attended by 34 delegates from 20 member countries, Argentina, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Uganda and Vietnam. In addition, the Ambassadors and senior representatives of the diplomatic missions of 6 non-member countries, Belarus, Ecuador, Ghana, Jordan, Mexico and Turkey, in Egypt too joined the Ceremonial Opening as Observers.

The GC delegates were welcomed by Prof. M. Tarek Hussein, President ASRT, which was followed by a power point presentation by Prof. Arun P. Kulshreshtha, Director, NAM S&T Centre on the activities of the Centre and the role played by it in fostering partnerships amongst scientists and institutions and in promoting South-South, and also North-South cooperation through S&T interventions for innovation and development in the developing world.

The meeting was inaugurated by Prof. Tarek Hussein on behalf of H.E. Dr. Hani Helal, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Arab Republic of Egypt, who was unable to join the inauguration due to unforeseen commitment. In the inaugural address Prof. Hussein mentioned that the NAM S&T Centre has set a good example for South-South cooperation facilitating the integration of a developmental approach into national science and technology policies. Referring to the visit of US President Obama to Egypt and his offer of cooperation to utilize S&T for peace and to link the North with the South to work together, he added that the GC meeting would identify specific investment priorities for the next generation of international efforts to harness science and technology in support of sustainable development, and said that a 'Cairo Announcement for Mobilizing Science and Technology for Sustainable Development' would be made at the end of the meeting.

During the Ceremonial Opening Prof. Tarek Hussein released six latest publications of the Centre titled 'Coastal Ecosystems: Hazards, Management and Rehabilitation', 'The Lightning Phenomenon: Need for Awareness, Detection and Protection from Damage Caused by Lightning', 'Traditional and Alternative Medicine: Research & Policy Perspectives', 'Microelectronics: Micro and Nano-electronics and Photonics', 'Enhancing Change through Science Centres' and 'Surface Engineering' that were edited by eminent academicians, researchers and professionals such as Prof. Ravindra Arora, Prof. Manoranjan Sahu, Dr. Krishan Lal, Dr. Shrikant V. Joshi, Dr. D. Srinivasa Rao and Dr. Rattan K. Datta from India, Prof. Theeshan Bahorun from Mauritius, Dr. Tuley De Silva and Dr. Chandima Gomes from Sri Lanka and Dr. Le Mai Huong from Vietnam.

The Governing Council elected Prof. M. Tarek Hussein, President ASRT as the President of the Centre by acclamation to hold the office until the next regular meeting of the GC. Other office bearers elected were Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary to the Government of the Republic of India in the Department of Science & Technology (DST) and Ms. Lindiwe FLNW Lusenga, Chief Director, Multilateral Cooperation and Africa, Department of Science & Technology of the Republic of South Africa as the Vice-Presidents and Dr. Jorge Luis Fernandez Chamero of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA) of the Republic of Cuba as the Rapporteur.

Expressing gratitude to the GC members for electing the Arab Republic of Egypt as the President of the Centre during the 12^th Session of its Governing Council, Prof. Tarek Hussein said that the activities of the Centre should be prioritised in a few focussed areas and should primarily concentrate on technology and development. The main concern for the Centre however has been the shortage of adequate funds required to carry out its scientific programmes at the desired level, and the member countries in general, and the Bureau Members in particular, were requested to come forward with generous support to raise sufficient funds to cater to the Centre's requirements.

The GC unanimously confirmed the Minutes of the 11^th GC meeting held in Jakarta/Bandung, Indonesia on 21-24 November 2005 and also ratified the Minutes of the 1^st and 2^nd Bureau Meetings of the 11^th GC, respectively held in Havana, Cuba during 25^th October 2006 and Livingstone, Zambia during 5^th-6^th May 2008.

Later, to commemorate the 20 years of the Centre's establishment, a report titled 'Two Decades (1989-2009) of NAM S&T Centre - The Model for South-South Cooperation in Science & Technology' prepared by Mr. M. Bandyopadhyay, Senior Expert & Administrative Officer of the Centre and published by the Centre as a compendium of its scientific activities implemented since its inception was released by Prof. Tarek Hussein in his capacity as the new President of the Centre. The members complimented the Centre on bringing out such valuable publications in various critical areas of relevance to developing countries.

12^th Governing Council Meeting in progress

The Director presented a consolidated report highlighting various activities carried out by the Centre and other issues on administration and finance for the period since the last GC meeting. The GC expressed satisfaction that the presentation gave a lucid picture about the scientific achievements of the Centre and the problems being faced by it due to inadequacy of funds. It noted with appreciation the actions taken by the Secretariat of the Centre on various recommendations of the 11^th GC and its 1^st and 2^nd Bureau Meetings and also took note of the multifarious scientific activities in diverse fields undertaken in last 4 years, as well as the Fellowship schemes being implemented by the Centre in partnership with ICCBS, Karachi, Pakistan and ZMT, Bremen, Germany, paving the way for better South-South and North-South cooperation in S&T. The GC also complimented the Centre for making good progress in the execution of the collaborative project on 'Rain Water Harvesting and Groundwater Recharge in Developing Countries HRD and Technology Transfer' that has been assigned to it by the Group of 77 (G-77) under its Perez Guerrero Trust Fund (PGTF). The GC noted the collaborative activities undertaken by the Centre and the partnership MOUs concluded with various international agencies and hoped that useful projects would be evolved and implemented through these arrangements. In particular, the GC noted the collaboration of the Centre with Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Regional Technical Assistance (RETA) on Good Asian Practices for Innovation and Development. In this connection, the President suggested that efforts should be made to obtain support from other international and regional agencies such as EU (under its FP-7 programme), JSPS and Korea through joint projects.

The Governing Council accorded in-principle approval to a number of activities proposed by the Centre. The President observed that these activities would be highly useful to the developing countries for capacity building and expanding scientific base, and also invited various countries to participate in various collaborative projects being proposed by Egypt for financial support from EU under FP-7 to be coordinated and implemented by Egypt with technical facilitation of the NAM S&T Centre.

The GC noted with satisfaction that since the last meeting in Indonesia, 4 new countries have joined the Centre as members, bringing the number of members to 44 and suggested that the newly elected office bearers and other members of the GC may make a personal communication with the non-member developing countries located in their respective regions urging them to join the Centre and further strengthen the efforts on South-South cooperation and also appealed to those member countries, which have yet not ratified the Statute of the Centre, to do so at the earliest. It was also noted that an industrial organization has joined the NAM S&T Industry Network for the first time and the Network membership has increased to 12. The member countries were requested to spread the message across to other scientific and industrial organizations in their countries for joining the Network in order to develop industry-institution partnerships aimed at the transfer and commercialisation of technologies.

Regarding the expenditure of the Centre, the GC noted with satisfaction that with some innovative measures the scientific component in the activities of the Centre has increased significantly as compared to administrative overheads, which is reflected in much higher expenditure on workshops, training programmes and other activities undertaken by the Centre. Concern was however expressed on the overall poor financial position of the Centre and the GC made a strong appeal to the non-paying member countries to expedite payment of their membership subscription dues to the Centre. In this context the GC noted that those countries, which have defaulted on their earlier dues, may still avail full financial benefit and other privileges, once the current year's subscription is paid to the Centre, and earlier dues may be paid later in convenient instalments. The GC also advised that efforts should be made to obtain project funding from individual governments and international organizations so as to improve the financial health of the Centre.

The GC approved the actions taken by the Director during the last three years in inculcating the scientific temper, S&T capacity building and eliminating gender bias in the employment policy of the Centre. It was also agreed that any member country may depute its scientists to work in the Centre as interns for short periods provided the entire expenditure on international travel and accommodation and subsistence in Delhi is borne by the sending country.

Considering the need of the developing countries, a proposal was made by the President to set up a Centre for Science & Technology for Sustainable Development in Developing Countries (CSTSD) with financial support from the USA. A special session was held to deliberate on this proposal and critical comments were offered by the GC delegates.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks proposed by Bangladesh on behalf of the GC delegates to the immediate Past President, Professor Carunia M. Firdausy, and the newly elected President, Professor Tarek Hussein for their guidance to the Centre and conducting fruitful and successful deliberations in the GC meeting. The Director thanked the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and in particular, Professor Tarek Hussein, President ASRT and all the officials of ASRT for making excellent arrangements for hosting the meeting.