ISLAMABAD: The fourteenth General Assembly of COMSTECH scheduled to take place from 11 till 13 January, 2011 will help to develop policy guidelines for new initiatives and proposals from COMSTECH Executive Committee and Draft Programme and Budget for 2010-2011.

So far, COMSTECH has successfully organised thirteen biennial General Assemblies and all of them have been held in Islamabad.

The Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) was established by the Third Islamic Summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference held at Makkah, Saudi Arabia in January 1981.

Its purpose was to consolidate not only the individual capacity of the states constituting the OIC but also the collective capacity of OIC as a whole in the fields of science and technology (S&T) by means of promoting mutual cooperation, collaboration, and networking of resources to foster rapid industrialization and socio- economic development.

All the OIC member states are members of COMSTECH as well.

Talking to APP an official in COMSTECH said “Our department is mandated to devise, pursue and follow S&T programmes by creating successful implementation strategies in the light and spirit of the S&T-related decisions of the Third Islamic Summit”.

The fourteenth General Assembly will consist of an Inaugural Session to be followed by five Plenary Sessions and a Concluding Session, he said further.