Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - The opening ceremony of the 12th Asean Conference of Clinical Laboratory Scientists 2008 was held yesterday at the International Convention Centre. This is the second time Brunei Darussalam is hosting the biennial conference, the first one was in 1999.

Present to launch the ceremony was the Minister of Health, Pehin Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Suyoi bin Hj Osman. Some 200 attendees were present, of whom over 100 are foreign participants.

According to the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Dr Hj Mohammad bin Hj Kassim, since the inaugural conference in Kuala Lumpur in 1985, it has gained increasing interest regionally and internationally.

"The conference not only serves to reach its objectives in upgrading knowledge and to promote regional cooperation among member states, it also serves to highlight the proud career and profession of the laboratory personnel," he said.

"In line with the theme 'Striving for excellence in laboratory practice', the Ministry of Health through the Department of Laboratory Services is currently working towards enhancing our quality standards by adopting ISO 151289. We have improved our services and are equipped with new tools to keep abreast with the latest developments.

"For this conference, we have prepared an extensive programme over the next three days: it consists of seven plenaries, 27 symposia, and six pre-conference workshops. It highlights all aspects of laboratory medicine with the contribution of thirty distinguished speakers from Asean and non-Asean countries."

President of Asean Association for Clinical Laboraroty Sciences, Dr Endang Horayanda, revealed in her speech that this was the first conference, in which the new name and logo of the association were being used. "Two years ago, during the 11th ACMLT in Jakarta, the Biennial General Meeting resolved that the association should be able to meet the global challenges of the profession," she said. With this change, she added, it is hoped and expected that all the member associations will internally change their nature of practising the profession towards a more scientific rather than vocational direction.

Before the launching of the Trade Exhibition by the Minister of Health, Dr Reynolds M Salerno, Manager of International Biological Threat Reduction, Global Security Programme, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA spoke on ‘The Role of Laboratory in the Globalisaton of the Biological Threats’, as part of his keynote address. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin