December 14, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 22, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 13: Development and commercialisation of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) technologies and processes have resulted in an estimated turn-over of Rs612 million in the national economy. This, in terms of foreign exchange savings, amounts to around Rs7 billion.

This was stated the Chairman of the PCSIR Dr Javed Arshad Mirza while speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of the First Workshop on “Global Reorganisation of Patent Systems” here on Wednesday.

Dr Mirza said that in addition to these technical processes, scientists and technologists of the PCSIR had obtained more than 500 patents and published 6,737 research papers in national and international journals.

He pointed out that for many years the primary aim of PCSIR scientists was developing low-cost technologies attracting the attention of small and medium level entrepreneurs (SMEs) since this class was internationally recognised to be the backbone of economy in developing countries.

The PCSIR Chairman said the number of technical processes developed for such SMEs was over 1,100.

He said that the PCSIR labs in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar were ISO-17025 accredited. Recently, a Patent Advisory Cell has been established at PCSIR Laboratories Complex, Karachi, under a PSDP project funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

In his welcome address, Dr Tanzil Haider Usmani, Director General of the Karachi Laboratories, said that the scientists and technologists of these labs had obtained 213 patents for their new products/processes.

Mohammad Mohsin, Secretary of the Trade Mark Intellectual Property Organisation, and Prof Mohammad Iqbal Chaudhry, Acting Director of the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi, also spoke on the occasion.—APP