His Excellency Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani: Rationality dictates us not to avoid any new technology.

The President of the "Expediency Council of Iran" in his official talk during the official inauguration ceremony of the Iran Biotechnology Information Center (IRBIC) said: "it is not rational to avoid any new and useful technology" referring to modern biotechnology and the use of genetically Modified Crop Plants. More than 100 participants of the third biosafety and genetic engineering congress attended in this official ceremony. He expressed his gratitude to the organizers of the third Biosafety and Genetic Engineering Congress held in Tehran from 13 to 15 June, including the Biosafety Society of Iran, Islamic Azad University, Iran Biotechnology Information Center and the international delegates and participants for disposing this novel congress. Considering biotechnology as a new knowledge and technology that is one of the valuable successes of mankind, he told to the scientific community that “Today several new branches of science and technology have been emerged from Genetics and Biotechnology. The speed of these technologies that are meant for the human welfare is so high that has raised some concerns".

As the founder of the Islamic Azad University (the largest university in Iran) President Rafsanjani indicated that there is a very good infrastructure for development of Biotechnology in Iran and added: "in the next 5 years Islamic Azad University have a plan to allocate a special attention to hi-tech and new sciences including biotechnology".

The head of expediency council propounded that one of the important goals of the Islamic Azad University is changing the accomplishments and researches of Iranian researcher and students to  translate science to technology and technology to wealth and industry. He specified that” wide territory and broad equipments of Azad University besides the unfinished determination of high ranking and responsible persons٬ scientific community and students make bright perspective for future”.

Hashemi Rafsanjani named this official inauguration of IRBIC as "a turning point in Biotechnology and Genetics in Iran" and recommended emphatically on the necessity of extending international collaborations between scientific and research centers in Iran and other countries. He added: "exchanging knowledge and experience between 27 BIC centers and the new BIC center in Iran can organize a huge global initiative provided that the public relations of these centers perform good role".

At the beginning of this ceremony Dr.Behzad Ghareyazie, President of Biosafety Society of Iran and Executive Director of Iran Biotechnology Information Center, presented a report about the celebration of this three days congress and all the propounded subjects and he explained about the importance of biotechnology for the development. Then, Dr. Iqbal Choudhary Executive Directors of Pakistan Biotechnology Information Center (PABIC) gave a short talk on behalf of the Biotechnolgy Information Centers (BICs) of the region and hoped that with the joining of the new BIC (IRBIC), we will be in a stronger position to disseminate the scientific information to the public. He expressed his gratitude about excellent conduct of the very outstanding congress by Biosafety Society of Iran. Congratulating the joining of Islamic Republic of Iran to Biotechnology Information Centers he said:” after Islamic revolution Iran has developed enormously from the viewpoint of science and technology”.

Dr. Rhodora Aldemita, representing the International Services for Acquisition and application of Agricultural Biotechnology (ISAAA) was the next speaker who introduced the background of the establishment of BICs in the Islamic world with the initial financial support from the COMSTEC. She also joined the previous speakers in congratulating the establishment of IRBIC that she believed "will strengthen the global exchange of knowledge in modern biotechnology".

ISAAA and IRBIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the end of this ceremony.

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