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Thursday 12 January 2012

Nano Industry To Generate US$ 2.7 Trillion


BANGI, 24 Nov. 2011 – Developing countries have been urged to grab their share in the nanotechnology revolution which can generate business to the tune of US$2.7 trillion by 2015.

Director of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Center of Science and Technology, Prof Dr Arun P Kulshreshta speaking at the Nanotechnology International Workshop here today said developing countries should invest in the field and forge collaborations to be key players so as not to remain merely as users.

The workshop themed Nanotechnology in the edge of convergence brought participants from 19 NAM member countries to discuss prospects in Nanotechnology.

It is hosted by the Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN) UKM and organised in collaboration with the Commission on Science and Technology Development in the South (COMSATS) of NAM and sponsored by UNESCO.

Prof Arun hoped the workshop would discuss and address such issues including its safety aspects like toxicity and material impacts to the surroundings.

The workshop will draft recommendations to be known as the Bangi Recommendations that will be presented to all relevant parties in the field of Nanotechnology internationally.

Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) UKM, Prof Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali in his opening address said the technology will change existing and accepted rules in many fields because advancement in nanotechnology will render certain things obsolete.

That was why it was important for everybody to be in the loop of nanotechnology development likening it to a Tsunami and not just a revolution.

IMEN Director,  Prof Dato' Dr Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis explained what it is and the seemingly limitless possibilities it offers.

Nano technology, he said, is basically altering materials at the atomic level to produce solutions. Thus if we can master the art of manipulation at the atomic stage then atoms can be denied from performing certain of their specific tasks, such as cancer cell being prevented from multiplying.

This bottoms up approach is the reverse of the classical top down approach. That makes nanotechnology a fundamental subject, as almost everything can be made controllable in the most basic building block, he said.

Under Secretary, National Nanotechnology Directorate, Ministry of Science and Technology, Prof Dr Halimaton Hamdan later gave a presentation of Malaysia’s plan in nanotechnology.

Participants from Malaysia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Sudan, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Tunisia, Uganda and Vietnam attended the workshop.

Present at the opening ceremony was Mohd Zulkifli bin Hashim the Executive Secretary of UNESCO Malaysia, Dr Arshad Saleem Bhatti, Dean of Faculty of Science, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), scientists and students
 


Source : UKM

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