ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: A country needs to excel in the field of science and technology to make a mark in the comity of nations, the minister for labour and manpower, Owais Ghani, said here on Friday.

He was speaking at the concluding session of the 3rd international symposium on mechanical vibrations organized by A.Q.Khan Research Laboratories.

At present, the minister said, the survival of countries was directly proportional to their potential in the field of technology. He said one thing that leaders of western countries had in common was the pledge they make during election campaigns to excel in science and technology. This showed how important technology was to a country if it wanted to develop, he added.

He said universities and research institutes of the country were required to remain in liaison with the local industry so as to provide solutions to the ever-emerging vibration problems.

He said: “Being an engineer myself, I am of the conviction that local research institutions can easily look after the technological needs of the country.”

Dr J.A. Mirza, the chairman of Dr A.Q.Khan Research Laboratories, said the challenges of “our time were immense and innumerable and nobody knew what future has in store for us, as humanity moves swiftly to unveil the mysteries of the unknown”.

“This invariably calls for more active collaboration between the nations of the world for the betterment of humanity and mother earth and for this purpose scientists and engineers around the globe ought to sit together more frequently in order to ensure a useful exchange of ideas and experience,” he added.

In the end, Dr Ghulam Yasin Chohan, the symposium secretary, said 100 delegates from different parts of the world participated in the symposium.

During the five days, he said four keynotes, 47 contributor papers, including 13 case studies, were presented in 13 technical sessions.

More than 35 scientists and engineers attended the symposium, however, a course on earthquake had to be cancelled because of low participation.

Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, special advisor to the chief executive on strategic programmes and KRL affairs, who formally inaugurated the session, was also present on the concluding occasion. He, alongwith the federal minister Owais Ghani, distributed certificates among the participants of the symposium.

APP ADDS: Mr Ghani said: “We will have to explore more avenues in scientific research and progress to keep pace with other nations of world in this area.”

He said: “No weakness is spared rather it is meted out with merciless punishment.

He said during the last few years “we vividly witnessed that only those nations achieved the milestone of industrial development that had set some targets”.

Mr Ghani stressed the need for combining new technology and application experience in perfecting the tools required to help the industry in making important maintenance.

“Conditions monitoring and vibration analysis, thus, remain the key priority areas,” he said, adding, “we shall also have to set our targets in these areas and fulfil commitment to achieve these targets”.

“We can survive only this way. Importance of technology cannot be under-estimated and we must strive with total focus on technological development,” he added.

In recent years, he said, extensive research had been carried out in the field of vibration measurement, monitoring, diagnosing and controlling.

“Today, vibration control has an entirely different meaning owing to the employment of advanced electronics and computer integrated systems,” the minister said.

About controlling vibrations, he said, while in the west, the industry had, by and large, addressed the problem of vibrations, it was the issue of noise control and noise pollution that topped the agenda of a vibrations engineer there.