KARACHI, Feb 11: The two-day New Silk Route Conference on Design (education and research) concluded on Sunday.

The conference was organized by the British Council vis-à-vis its two-year New Silk Route project involving expertise from the UK to promote creativity and design in countries of the Central and South Asia region, including Bangladesh, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

The experts spoke on some key aspects of the issues of design education and training and the programme adopted a multi-agency approach bringing in key designers, design educators, researchers, politicians, editors and writers of design publications, brand managers of companies, policy makers, city government officials and students from departments of design took part in the conference.

Those who spoke in the conference included Yasmin Lari, executive director, Heritage Foundation, Dr Lee Bosher and Dr M. Sohail (University of Lou Borough, UK), Salima Hashmi, dean of School of Visual Arts, Zaigham Jaffery (adviser to Architect Regional Council for Asia), Irfan Hussain, Nilofur Farrukh, Saima Zaidi, Showkat B. Sarkar, Naiza Khan, Sonia Battla, Dr Nomana Anjum, Danish Zuby and Asya Samad.

According to organisers, the aim of the project was to create a new image of the region among participating countries by using the familiar image of the ancient Silk Route.

The organisers said the conference brought together expertise from the UK as part of the British Council and the Higher Educa-tion Commission-funded link partners, the Textile Institute of Pakistan and the Uni-versity of Manchester, the NED University and University of Loughborough along with designers for the workshop. Besides, local expertise was also included for the conference.

During the conference, the experts from the UK and Pakistan spoke on various aspects of design education and research.