STAFF REPORT ISB: The sustainable development requires integrated efforts from regional and global counterparts to partner and cooperate each other for long lasting, impactful steps. This was stressed in National Seminar on South-South Cooperation: Towards a Sustainable Future organized by Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in South (COMSATS) in partnership with Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT).
The objective of the national seminar was to bring stakeholders including policy makers, diplomats, scientists, economists, civil society together to identify the ways and improve cooperation in various sectors to attain the goals of sustainable development in the country.
COMSATS Executive Director Dr IE Qureshi stressed on South-South cooperation in his address. He said, “The obligations stipulated in the SDGs have more or less been a part and parcel of COMSATS programmes owing to the mandate given to the organization on its inception in 1994. COMSATS is a living example of a long-haul commitment to triangular and South-South cooperation programmes in the context of Sustainable Development”.
UNDP Assistant Country Director Shakeel Ahmad stated, “South-South Cooperation is becoming more of a necessity than just one of the options for achieving growth and human development in the South”. He said that the statistics of developing countries essentially point towards the wealth of knowledge and innovation that the South is accumulating as their economies grow, and also suggest an unequivocal potential and opportunities that the countries of the South and South Asia in particular could explore for achieving SDGs..