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May 2004

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Ebeid inaugurates BioVision conference in Alexandria
Prime Minister Dr. Atef Ebeid inaugurated on April 3 the Alexandria International Conference on Biotechnology (BioVision), organized by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) under the auspices of President Hosni Mubarak. Ebeid gave an address at the opening session in which he stressed Egypt's keenness to get acquainted with the biotechnology for providing food and health services, improving the living standards, preserving the environment and alleviating poverty. He added that the main challenges facing Egypt in the domain of biotechnology are the necessary finance, training chances and enhancement of scientific abilities. Ebeid added that Egypt has made during the past 50 year remarkable achievements in all fields of development and that Egypt is now qualified to keep up with the challenges of the future. He also urged for cooperation between the North and South to live up to the future challenges as well as establishing partnership between universities, international agencies and businessmen for exchanging expertise and transferring technology to the developing countries.
The four-day gathering discuss a number of researches on the scientific applications of biotechnology. The conference is attended by a host of businessmen researchers and industrialists from a number of world countries. The inauguration session also included speeches by Ibrahim Badran, Former Minister of Health in Egypt, Mohamed Hassan, Executive Director of the Third World Academy of Sciences, as well as Koji Omi, Former Minister for Science and Technology Policy in Japan.
The first day of the conference was "Nobel Laureates Day", hosting four chemistry Nobel laureates from France, Egypt, Japan and the U.S.A. Under the title "Highlights of the Biochemical Revolution", French Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Lehn talked about "Supra-molecular Chemistry: Some Contributions to Life Sciences". Ahmed Zewail, Nobel laureate in Chemistry 1999, talked about "BioVision at the Interface". "The New Life Sciences: Implication in Civil Society" was the theme under which Nobel laureate Ryoji Noyori gave a presentation entitled "Asymmetric Catalysis: Roles in Biomedical Science and Technology". Sherwood Rowland, Nobel laureate in Chemistry 1995, discussed "The Changing Atmosphere in 2004".
Keynote bio-scientists launched the opening plenary session of the second day of the BioVision Alexandria Conference on "The New Life Sciences: Ethics, Patents and the Poor", under the chairmanship of Andrew Bennett, Executive Director of the Syngenta Foundation in Switzerland. Entitled "The New Biology: A Survey of the Issues", the plenary session included several presentations by renowned scientists and authors in the field of biotechnology. Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria spoke of the " Economic Issues: Providing the Conditions for Life Science Research and Development". M.S. Swaminathan, UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology and Head of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in India, discussed the "Ever-green Revolution and Biohappiness", whereas Malcolm Elliott, Director of the Norman Borlaug Institute for Plant Science Research in the UK, talked about "New Biology for Developing Countries: Opportunities and Constraints". Massimo Garzelli, Head of the UNIDO Regional Office, presented the audience with a report on the Global Biotechnology Forum in Chile, which was held under the auspices of both the Chilean government and the UNIDO. This was followed by a roundtable discussion with members of the European Action on Global Life Sciences Initiative (EAGLES). Chaired by Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Chairman of the EAGLES Initiative, the consortium included members like Huanming Yang, Professor of Genetics, Director of Beijing Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Co-Vice-Chairman of the EAGLES, as well as Boerge Diderichsen, President of the European Federation of Biotechnology and David McConnell, from the Smurfit Institute if Genetics, Trinity College in Ireland.
On the third day, discussions concentrated on "Trade, Patents and Developing Countries", addressing matters of "timing, quality and focus of bio-safety research". Intellectuals worked on finding answers to questions like whether we should move from risk assessment to sustainability assessment? And what evidence base do we actually need to make sound decisions and defend them?. In a special session on "Intellectual Property Rights", David McConnell, Co-Vice Chairman of European Action on Global Life Sciences and Professor at Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity College, Ireland, spoke of the "genetic hazards resulting from biotechnology being limited compared to other kinds of technology". Professor McConnell pointed out the fact that for the past thirty years, neither genetic engineering research nor biotechnological experiments have caused deaths or accidents in developed or developing countries. Dr. Yuan Zheng Hong, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Vodan University in China, pointed out the efforts made by China in the fields of biotechnological research, aiming to make the best of it to boost the production of medical supplies. Dr. Hong asserted in his speech that biotechnology has become the basis for progress in fields of health and human resources, as many medical patents have been registered throughout the nineties. The same session hosted Carl-Gustaff Thornstrِm, Senior Research Advisor at the Agricultural Department for Research Cooperation (SIDA), Sweden, who spoke about trade issues in the field of biotechnology, specially as pertaining to agricultural seeds and plant growth. He spoke of the several international trade agreements between developing and developed countries, as well as patent rights for the exchange of exports and imports between nations.