First African Biotechnology Congress held in Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa, June 4, 2024 (FBC) – Addis Ababa held the first-ever African Biotechnology Congress in attendance of experts from various countries of the continent and government representatives.

In his opening remarks at the 1st African Biotechnology Congress, Ethiopian State Minister of Innovation and Technology, Bayissa Bedada (PhD), said Ethiopia recognize Africa’s journey into the future will be defined by rapid advancements of science especially in biotechnology, artificial intelligence and digital transformation.

“We highly believe that without fostering a culture of innovation and emerging technologies, we cannot address complex challenges and unlocking new possibilities for our young generations across Africa,” he said.

Investing in green spaces, public transportation and modern waste management to contribute to environmentally sustainable development has become our day today practices, he noted.

“We are also embarking on modernizing our agricultural sector utilizing modern farming practices, as it is impossible to increase production, enhancing productivity in agriculture and ensuring food security with the current conventional agricultural practices and low-tech farming methods in Ethiopia,” he explained.

“Being the second largest population in Africa with an estimated 115 million people in 2020, is an opportunity by itself as our young generation is the source of human resource development and growth. And again, we also understand that if our economy especially the agricultural sector is not supported with the proper technology and innovation, we could fail to feed our big population.”

Over 60% of all Ethiopia’s exports are generated from the agricultural sector and we need to balance the different sectors of our economy by facilitating practical scientific researches to support our country’s manufacturing sector, especially the agro-processing, textile and apparel, and leather industries, Bayissa indicated.

Therefore, agricultural technologies especially the development and harnessing of modern Agricultural Biotechnology would play a critical role in the enhancement of productivity and ensuring food security as well as improving nutritional health of our people.

Cognizant of the crucial role of biotechnology, the Ethiopian government has given special attention to the development and growth of biotech researches and innovations in all the agricultural, industrial, medical, pharmaceutical, environment protection as well as other critical areas of our economy.

We, in the science and technology leadership, are aware that Ethiopia, as a country with immense genetic biodiversity, needs to do a balance between biotechnological scientific research and bio-safety measures as well as research and professional ethics, the State Minister pointed out.

“As the government of Ethiopia has given special attention to science and technology, especially to the emerging sciences related to Artificial Intelligence, ICT and Digitization as well as biotechnological advancements, I want to reaffirm that we are ready to strengthen our support to development of our biotech industry,” he added.