Chairman of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) Ahmed Bilal urged the need to incorporate space education in the national curriculum.
In his welcome address at the inauguration ceremony of the International Space Conference 2014 at OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) Secretariat, the chairman said space products and services have continued to become more readily available and integrated into daily life of billions of people around the globe.
“The size of the global space economy crossed a mammoth US$315 billion mark in 2013 and is one of the sectors recording the highest growth rates. Developing nations, especially, are progressively increasing their spending on space activities and are working towards the indigenisation of national space programmes,” he added.
Acclaimed Pakistani scientist, scholar and educationist Dr Shaukat Hameed Khan praised the efforts of Institute of Space Technology for departing space education amongst the youth of country. He also praised Suaprco’s role as the national space agency of Pakistan.
“Space technology has the potential to transform the agro-economy of Pakistan, and Suparco is leading it in the right direction,” he said.
Present at the occasion, IST Vice Chancellor Imran Rahman said “IST is the only institution in the Islamic world which focuses specifically on space technologies, and the vision of our university is to pave the way for our country and beyond to fully utilise this resource for meaningful development.”
Sequel to the first Space Conference held in September 2012, the current conference is an initiative of Suparco to connect various entities related to space sciences for sharing the latest developments in space technologies and their applications.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2014.
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