Bangladesh News

Proper application of biotechnology can help revolutionise development of agriculture, industry and healthcare, and achieve sustainable growth.

This technology can also be used as an effective tool to produce or modify various goods and improve plants and animals.

Speakers expressed this view at a seminar on ‘Promotion of Biotechnology in Bangladesh: National and International perspective’ that began in the capital yesterday.

They observed that increasing use of biotechnology would help meet the challenges of developing countries like Bangladesh where population is growing but agricultural productivity is not increasing as required and farmland is decreasing.

Scientists and biotechnologists from different countries including US, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia are taking part in the three-day seminar being held at the ICDDR, B.

Energy, Science and ICT Adviser Tapan Chowdhury, Agriculture Adviser CS Karim, Vice Chancellor of Brac University Jamilur Reza Choudhury, Executive Director of ICDDR, B David A Sack, President of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS) Shamser Ali, BAS Secretary Naiyyum Choudhury, Pro VC of Dhaka University and AFM Yusuf Haider, among others, spoke at the seminar yesterday.

Speakers stressed government support and funds for biotechnological research which, they said, would greatly contribute to national development.

Inaugurating the seminar, Adviser Tapan Chowdhury said, “Bangladesh is a land-strapped country, where the population is already one of the densest in the world. Agricultural land is decreasing every year…Application of biotechnology can help us meet these challenges.”

He emphasised setting up a biotechnological institute in the country.

Adviser CS Karim assured of government help in biotechnological research in the country.

In this context, he said plans have to be taken to make “our path of development easier so that our future generation can enjoy its fruits.”

Jamilur Reza Choudhury said biopharmaceuticals, mainly vaccines and bio generics, have the potential for a $2 billion market.

He suggested increased support for development and application of biotechnology.

“We need to produce more graduates and post-graduates in this rapidly advancing field …We also need to think about suitable training that would allow research ideas to take shape and produce marketable products. So, we need biotechnology managers, who would instinctively recognise innovative and saleable research,” he said.

“Biotech industry is capital intensive in nature and has historically relied on capital from public and private sources.”

Yusuf Haider said, “During the last two centuries, the world changed from an essentially agricultural society to an industrial one. Today we are on the verge of yet another transition from the industrial to the information and biotechnology-based society.”

He added, “Biotechnology is an emerging technology and it is the technology of 21st century. This technology is going to have tremendous impact on the resource management.”

The seminar is jointly organised by the Science and ICT Ministry, Dhaka University, Brac University, Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, ICDDR, B, Incepta and Square

Pharmaceuticals.