Development and building capacity of scientific manpower needed

"Technology is not kind, it does not say 'please', but slams into existing systems and destroys them while creating new ones. Countries and individuals can either surf new and powerful waves of change or get crushed trying to stop them," said Juan Enriquez , the author of the world bestseller "As the future Catches You".

He was speaking on the role of bio business and biotechnology in the future knowledge economy at the conference "Bio Asia 2008 " being held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.

Her Royal Highness Chulabhorn Valayalaksana presided over the opening ceremony of the conference.

 About 5,000 researchers, academics, investors, and commercial developers of biotechnology products from 20 countries are participating in the conference organised by Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS) .

Enriquez, one of the world's leading authorities on the economic and political impacts of the revolutionary development in life science, said as the economic turmoil spreads around the world, each country should continue focusing on science, technology, education, and growth.

" By combining science research and business, those who have been poor can rapidly become a first world country but those who ignore this lesson become irrelevant and eventually disappear", he said.

He added each country should develop and build capacity for scientific manpower particularly by supporting researchers to study and obtain doctoral degrees. This would be the key to develop scientific knowledge to boost the economy.

Meanwhile, TCELS's chairman , Dr Pornchai Matangkasombut said Thailand could achieve rapid growth in the biotech sector by following the model of easy and rapid networking.

"We can progress quickly in the biotech sector by helping world class academics, researchers, investors, as well as experts in commercialisation work together easily and conveniently, by sharing resources and knowledge," he said.

 However, in the near future, Pornchai pointed out that the development of small medical devices related to physical body such as sensors embedded under the skin to monitor sugar levels or micro surgical machines would play an important role in the health care business and well-being of mankind.

"Don't be surprised if we would be informed about the sugar level in our blood by the tiny device embedded in our skin. This would happen in the next 10 years," he said.