Dr. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, addressed the 14th International Business Forum (IBF) Congress on the theme “The Importance of Technology for Development in Islamic Countries” on 6 October 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Addressing a number of distinguished bureaucrats, chairmen of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academicians, businessmen and press members, Dr. Alpay briefed the participants on the theme “Research and Scientific Development in OIC Member Countries” with a special focus on nanotechnology.

Calling upon the OIC Member Countries for taking rapid and sound actions in the nanotechnology field, Dr. Alpay stated that the world is in the ‘Nanotechnology Era’ in which the expenditures for nanotechnology related research will reach 3 trillion USD by 2015. He emphasized that, countries need nanotechnology in many strategic areas such as textile, food and automotive sectors and the OIC Member Countries must take place and invest in the nanotechnology related fields. Dr. Alpay stressed the importance of cooperation for sharing experience among the OIC Member Countries.

Underlining the importance of knowledge-intensive exports, Dr. Alpay stated that 80% of the total technology exports of the OIC Member Countries have been realized from Malaysia. He also expressed that the scientific work is not at the desired level based on the fact that only 63 thousand scientific articles were published in the OIC Member Countries as a whole, whereas, Germany on its own published 73 thousand scientific articles in 2009. Moreover, he stated that the Muslim countries should establish partnerships and cooperation in addition to the need of increasing their level of R&D expenditures. “We should further develop our information infrastructure and our universities should be supported in order to increase their level of quality” he finally added.

Photos