The Executive Director COMSATS, Ambassador Dr. Mohammad Nafees Zakaria participated at the 13th Meeting of Governing Board of the Alliance of National and International Science Organizations for the Belt and Road Regions (ANSO). He is serving as a member of the ANSO Governing Board since 2023. The meeting was chaired by Prof. HE Hongping, President of ANSO and Vice President of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The Governing Board deliberated upon ANSO progress report 2026, membership dues, amendments to the Statutes, new membership applications, and priorities for future development of ANSO. In this regard, the CAS-ANSO Scholarship, Fellowship, Conference Programme, Collaborative Research Programme, Co-funding Research Programme, and the ANSO Lecture Series were discussed.
While presenting its Progress Report, the ANSO Secretariat acknowledged the contributions of COMSATS, including the recently organized ANSO-COMSATS Conference on “Artificial Intelligence Enabled Solutions for Sustainable Water Governance, Security and Safety” (September 2026, Islamabad) and ANSO-COMSATS-TWAS Conference on “A Sustainable Future for All Living Species on Planet Earth” (October 2026, Islamabad). ANSO also highlighted its participation at COMSATS’ meetings and activities including the recently held 26th COMSATS Coordinating Council Meeting in Indonesia.
Ambassador Dr. Mohammad Nafees Zakaria actively contributed to the discussions on ANSO’s future development strategy and priorities, particularly in the context of emerging technologies. He recommended that Agriculture and Food Security should be at the top of list of priorities. He further suggested to focus on those areas and activities that directly impact human lives.
Ambassador Zakaria highlighted the depth of COMSATS-ANSO collaboration, including the 11 terms of the ANSO-BIDI School that benefitted over 600 researchers and scientists from COMSATS Member States. He reaffirmed COMSATS’ readiness to bring its institutional experience, Network of Centres of Excellence, expertise and capabilities to jointly promote science, technology, innovation and inclusive development across the developing world.
