Arab Science & Technology Foundation (ASTF) announced launching the second session of “Arab Capabilities for Development and Innovation” initiative. The first session of the initiative was sponsored by the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi under the name of the great scientist Dr. Farouk Al-Baz.
Dr. Abdul Allah Al-Nagar, Head of ASTF, said that the initiative aims to pave the way for creative Arabs so they could help develop their countries through coming up with new suggestions for projects.
The foundation views scientific research and creativity as the cornerstones of building a developed society, supported by technology , that can compete with developed countries, which will boost the economy within the Arab region. Therefore new firms are being established , based on the suggestions made, to provide work opportunities for youth and accelerate development.
Ghada Amer, Vice-President of ASTF, stated that the 2nd session of the initiative supports creative individuals by highlighting their innovations in various technological spheres. The foundation supports creative Arabs’ skills to make them ready for presenting their innovations to investors and businessmen. Thus, when creative ideas are transformed to actual projects, they will help solving problems and decreasing the challenges that the Arab countries are facing.
The first session of this initiative was titled “Al-Baz and Arab capabilities for development and innovation”. It had witnessed 303 new ideas from different Arab countries suitable for projects in several sectors such as agriculture, energy, water and special needs. The first session of the initiative took several months as it held a number of workshops in different Egyptian governorates aiming at supporting the skills of business planning and building teams. Maean Hyaline won the initiative’s award worth EGP 1m to invest in establishing her company and develop a 100 cubic meter industrial model to start the company’s business, according to Amer.
“Technological investments are adopted by many countries in order to increase its resources. Such investments made many developing countries among the world’s leading countries”, Amer said. Finally, she urged research bodies to have technological investments on the top of Arab priorities.
