It was, therefore, very timely and appropriate for our foreign affairs adviser, Dr. Ifthekar Ahmed Chowdhury, to remind his counterparts at the recent OIC Foreign Ministers meeting that the OIC needs to seriously focus on development activities, and modernise itself and its affiliated organisations, if it did not want to become irrelevant.

The majority of the member states of the OIC are clustered in two regions, one extending from Indonesia to Morocco, the other being sub-Saharan Africa. This "OIC region" is the most underdeveloped part of the world in terms of both economic and technological development. The OIC-member countries account for 22 of the 37 countries that are classified as Least Developed Countries (LDC). This group unfortunately also includes Bangladesh.

One of the main sources of income for many LDCs, including Bangladesh, has been to use the LDC badge to seek unhindered market access of their products which are relatively cheap because of low cost of labour. These measures can only provide temporary relief but cannot lead to sustainable development in the absence of scientific proficiency and a prosperous economy.

Even within the developing world, it is alarming that not a single member country of the OIC is scientifically proficient in comparison to the rapidly advancing countries (India, China, Brazil) or the emerging economies of Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore).

Wealth and scientific advancement are unevenly distributed within the OIC region. Some of the Middle East countries are wealthiest in the world in terms of oil and foreign currency reserves and yet they lack in scientific proficiency. They prefer to import technology and manpower rather than using their transient wealth to build their economy.

There are other countries in the region such as Bangladesh that, because of their lack of resources and infrastructure, are considered scientifically underdeveloped and yet have a small but highly trained manpower, some of whom continue to remain productive in their home countries despite their isolation and other difficult circumstances.

This has resulted in a very debilitating brain drain to the technologically advanced countries. Some governments of Islamic countries such as Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia have started spending large amounts of money (outside the defence allocation) on development of science and technology, but they lack skilled manpower.

It therefore makes sense for the countries of the OIC region to formulate common goals in areas of mutual interest and to pool some of their wealth, natural resources, scientific expertise, and major facilities to solve the pressing problems of the region, and to boost national development and sustainability.

Unfortunately there is a serious lack of common purpose and co-ordination in regards to research and development strategy at the government level, and this is where the OIC and institutions like the IDB, Comstech, Islamic Academy of Science (IAS), the Network of Academies of Sciences in Islamic Countries (NASIC), and national science academies of individual countries can play a very important catalytic and supportive role.

The above organisations could work with regional scientists and governments to develop agenda that are relevant to the OIC region and allow individual countries to drive their own needs while cooperating with one another as equal partners in regional development.

Other international organisations such as the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (TWAS) and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) have also given a commitment that they would support the development of regional cooperation in scientific research and for the necessary transformation in research culture.

One of the greatest obstacles to research productivity in the region is the lack of trained personnel and full time researchers. This deficiency can be overcome by greater emphasis on scientific and technical cooperation with more technological capable countries contributing significantly to the development of science in the less developed ones and the exchange of experts and research material.

Wealthy countries with rich recourses, like some of those in the Middle East, must be persuaded that regional development and sustainability is critically dependent upon a strong science and technology platform, and it is in their own interest to support this initiative.

A very common tendency in all the undeveloped countries of the OIC region is to try and compete with the rest of the world in all areas of research. This is neither practical nor sensible as with the limited resources, expertise and facilities they end up spreading themselves too thin and achieving nothing.

There must be regional focus on only a small number of priority areas where there is an existing strength and potential. I will give one specific example of how existing human and material resources can be marshalled for meeting the development objectives in an area of acute need.

Countries in the OIC region are endowed with unique and rich flora and fauna, with 34 of the world's biodiversity hotspots, and a wealth of indigenous traditional knowledge that have often been the source of successful modern medicines. So why have the OIC member countries failed to explore their abundant biodiversity to develop and produce the new and essential drugs required for their own health care needs, and why have they failed to use this as a vehicle for the economic development of the region?

The simple answer is that, within the OIC member countries the scientific and technical base required for this initiative is grossly inadequate and there is lack of capacity, infrastructure and available funds.

The above difficulties can be overcome if OIC member countries are prepared to work together with adequate support from the OIC and other development organisations in the Islamic world.

By developing sensible regional health priorities of common interest, starting from a strong indigenous knowledge base, using existing natural resources, sharing multidisciplinary expertise and facilities, employing rational approaches to the discovery and optimisation of candidate drugs and taking advantage of the relatively low cost of labour.

It is feasible to establish a research-based drug development program in the region that can be less time consuming and much cheaper than similar operations carried out by multinational pharmaceutical companies in the North.

Besides the strong possibility of useful health care products, this initiative will also raise the science and technology base in the region, and lead to much needed research capacity development, with beneficial knock-on effects for many other areas of science. This will also help to reverse the brain drain by proper utilisation of talent and expertise within the OIC region.

This project will require excellence and sophistication in research that is rarely seen in the Islamic world today but achievable through cooperation and collaboration. What is required for success is the will to succeed and unity of purpose among the scientists and governments of the OIC countries.

By focusing on a small number of such trans-national development projects in areas of common interest the OIC and its member countries can develop the necessary science and technology base required achieving self-sufficiency and self reliance. Can the OIC and its member states rise to the challenge by burying their existing differences and building on their complementary strengths?

Ahmed A. Azad is TWAS Research Professor, Brac University.