DUSHANBE, December 25, Asia-Plus  -- Academician Mamadsho Ilolov, President of the Academy of Sciences, will give a news conference today on a state of affairs in the Tajik science. 

The news conference, staged by the Academy of Sciences in cooperation with Tajik Journalists’ Union and Republican Press Center, will be held at the Tajik Journalists’ Union at 3:00 p.m.    

The Republican Press Center editor Ilhom Narziyev said that issues related to scientific cooperation between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation are supposed to be discussed at the news conference.  “Mr. Ilolov recently returned from his business trip to Moscow, where he held talks with Nikolai Laverov (phonetically spelled), Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences,” said Narziyev, “A number of cooperation documents were signed in Moscow.” 

In the meantime, Muhabbatsho Hikmatov, an aide to the president of the Tajik Academy of Sciences, told Asia-Plus that academician Ilolov would also inform journalists of the upcoming session of the Board of Managers of the International Scientific-Technical Center, which is scheduled to be held in Dushanbe in April 2008. 

Representatives from some 40 countries, including member nations of the European Union and the CIS, the United States, Japan, Canada, Norway, Korea and Sweden, are supposed to attend the session, the aide said.  

Tajikistan joined the Founding Agreement of International Scientific-Technical Center in 2003.  The International Scientific-Technical Center is an intergovernmental organization, which was founded in 1992 on the basis of mutual consent among the Council of Europe, the Russian Federation, the United States and Japan. 

According to Hikmatov, an establishment of a special prize for journalists covering scientific subjects will also be announced at today’s news conference.