Sciences hold the key to life

Enriquez, the founding director of the Harvard Business School Life Sciences Project, is currently the managing director of Excel Medical Ventures and CEO of Biotechonomy, a venture-capital firm specialising in investment in the field of life sciences.

Speaking in honour of Prof Pornchai Matangkasombat, one of Thailand's top scientists in the field of microbiology and immunology, Enriquez stressed the importance of science and technology to the prosperity of nations.

He also praised Pornchai for his contribution to the development of science and technology in Thailand.

In 2004 Pornchai, then president of Mahidol University, was tasked with setting up Thailand Centre for Excellence in Life Sciences, a non-profit organisation responsible for promoting coordination between government, scientists and the business sector.

This was seen as crucial to establishing Thailand as a potential regional hub in the biotechnology industry and related services.

According to Enriquez, considered a world authority on the impact economy and politics have on life sciences, visionary leadership and citizens' brainpower are today the predominant factors in a nation's wealth and power.

In this context, Enriquez said education was important as he cited India, where higher learning institutes such as the Indian Institute of Technology had been noteworthy in developing the country's manpower in information technology and other advanced scientific fields.

Singapore, an island republic founded in the 1960's after separating from Malaysia, is another nation where leadership, high-quality education and brainpower are key to wealth and power, he said.

Despite the current political deadlock and fallout from the global financial crisis, Enriquez said he believed that science and technology still held the key to Thailand's long-term competitiveness and survival.

Given the advances in the human-genome project - in which A, T, C and G are established as the basic genetic source codes of life - and success in gene-sequencing, scientists can now clone certain body parts from stem cells or even chickens to suit human consumption, he said.

Soon scientists will be able to clone human teeth from skin cells or grow human skin for either cosmetic or medical cases, such as severe burns, he said.

Hence endless possibilities in life sciences as well as new opportunities in business, fashion and other fields will emerge, Enriquez said, all made possible by the ability to read, copy and programme the codes of life.

In other words, he said, "in the midst of a global financial crisis, it is sometimes hard to recall that what really makes a difference in a country's longer-term prospects and even its survival is the ability to continue focussing on science, technology, education and growth.

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