Technological gap between rich, poor nations widening

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday that the technological gap between advanced and developing countries should be bridged immediately.

Speaking at the opening of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on Medical Genetics, the President said that industrialized countries have made very rapid progress because they are supported by scientific and technological might and huge financial resources. The developing nations, meanwhile, are bogged down in a quagmire of backwardness and hunger.

"Unless this gap is bridged immediately, humankind will always be subjected to injustice and constant disquiet," Soeharto told 300 participants from 13 countries.

The four-day conference was sponsored by the Indonesia-based Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology and the World Health Organization. The opening ceremony took place at the State Palace.

The conference will discuss chromosome abnormalities, advances in molecular genetics and in human genome project, genetic disorders of red blood cells and country reports on genetics.

Soeharto said history illustrates how the use of science and technology has led to a quantum leap in progress.

The use of science and technology has made what people used to dream of into reality, he said.

"This is why we fully understand that science and technology must guide us in the effort to accelerate the attainment of progress," Soeharto said.

He also warned the scientists of their responsibility to master science and technology.

He said that one of the scientific disciplines which has developed rapidly is molecular biology, which development has impacted on the knowledge about the process of how a disease develops.

The Eijkman Institute was established in 1888 by Dr. Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch scientist who discovered the correlation between vitamin-B deficiency and beriberi.

Eijkman won a Nobel Prize in 1929 for this discovery. The institute was later named after him.

After the Japanese occupation of Indonesia began in 1942, the institute's activities declined drastically. It closed down in 1965.

In 1992, State Minister of Research and Technology B. J. Habibie re-established the institute but shifted its task to molecular biology research.

At the same time, Soeharto greeted the participants of the second Eijkman Symposium on the Molecular Biology of Disease.

Sangkot Marzuki, director of the Institute, told reporters last week that the Asia-Pacific conference was actually scheduled for next year, but the institute insisted on holding it this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Indonesian independence.

Sangkot, the winner of an ASEAN achievement award on biology, said that the conference will hear five keynote speakers from various countries. One of them is Sir Gustav Nossal, director of the Australian Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research.

Nossal will give a lecture on medical genetics and preventive medicine tomorrow night at the Shangri-La Hotel, the venue of the conference.

According to Sangkot, the Eijkman Institute has cooperated with the Australian institute to research the malaria parasite.

"The research will include molecular biology field work in eastern Indonesia," he said.

Sangkot expected ASEAN countries to set up a network to enable member countries to communicate better.

"The main problem about the regional network is funds," he said.

Sangkot expressed the hope that the region will have a network like the European Molecular Biology Association to help mobilize experts. (05)