Bengal Admin
Joined: 25 Jan 2005
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Genetic engineering to be the
focus of 20-year plan
The New Age
The government will soon adopt a national biotechnology policy for application of the latest innovations towards risk-free and health-proof development of agriculture, food, industry, environment and health sectors.
‘We will send the draft to the national taskforce committee on biotechnology in a couple of months for approval,’ said a high official of the science and ICT ministry.
The taskforce, headed by the Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, will function as the highest policymaking body and give necessary directives for the development of biotechnology as an applied scientific discipline.
It will also be responsible for generating and allocating need-based resources for operating and undertaking various activities through funding support from the government, and possible foreign assistance, the policy document says.
The draft policy was finalised by the science and ICT ministry in August 2004 and later approved by the national executive committee on biotechnology, headed by the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, in October 2004.
The national executive committee is responsible for the implementation of the national policy on biotechnology to ensure speedy and risk-free development of the technology as per the directives of the national taskforce.
‘The NECB will give approval to different projects to be submitted by the respective ministries in the light of policy objectives and programmes in different sectors of the national economy,’ the policy states.
Officials said that during the formulation of the policy, inputs and suggestions were taken from the agriculture, fisheries and livestock, environment, and health ministries as the application of biotechnology would primarily involve these sectors.
Based on the policy, the government is set to announce a 20-year ‘perspective plan’ to keep pace with the fastest-growing disciplines of biotechnology and genetic engineering.
Though biotechnology has emerged as the fastest growing industry in the world with a total turnover crossing more than $100 billion, Bangladesh has yet to make any headway on the field.
Plant biotechnology was initiated in Bangladesh in late 1970s and a number of research laboratories, universities, and research and development organisations are involved in carrying out researches. Presently, a few NGOs are also working on plant tissue culture.
Biotechnology, however, commercially still remains in the embryonic stage, though the country has a pool of foreign-trained biotech researchers now working in different universities.
Besides, the country has over 30 biological and agricultural research and development laboratories where biotechnology could be developed with minimum support to infrastructure and human resource development.
Under the policy, the government, in collaboration with experienced foreign organisations, would set up biotech incubator parks in different places depending on the availability of bio-resources.
A national authority on biotechnology will also be set up to work as an umbrella for the development and regulatory work of the country’s public and private biotechnological initiatives.
It would also create an eco-friendly environment for the growth of biotech industries through simplification of procedures to get clearances for commercialisation of biotech products.
The government has already announced the biotech sector as a thrust area. According to the policy, the government will facilitate venture capital funds and bank credit to the emerging biotechnology companies.
The policy will also address some of the core issues involving intellectual property rights, bio-safety, bio-surveillance and bio-ethics with due emphasis on knowledge, innovation, and indigenous practices.
The government with the help of universities, research and development organisations, NGOs and private agencies will also conduct a detailed inventory of the country’s bio-resources to promote sustainable exploitation of bio-resources.
The policy identifies some priority areas in biotechnological applications around which the entire biotechnological research would function. All researches in biotechnology will have to be product-oriented and assured in terms of investments and returns, the policy says.
The government under the policy will create a necessary seed fund and encourage the private organisations to come up solutions in specific areas biotechnology through what is termed as the Contract Research Programme.
The government will also approach international funding organisations for financing important biotechnology projects of national interest, particularly those related to poverty alleviation, food security, and improvement of health and livelihood.
The science and ICT ministry will periodically review (preferably every three years) the national policy on biotechnology in consultation with other relevant ministries to update, harmonise, and standardise the policy in line with the fast development of this field and also with the international treaties, protocols and conventions, and submit recommendations to the NECB for consideration. |
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