AMMAN - The economic crisis the world is currently facing calls for a need to revisit goals and strategies in terms of innovation, head of the European Commission to the Kingdom Ambassador Patrick Renauld said on Wednesday.
In his address at the opening ceremony of the Third Euro-Mediterranean Symposium on Innovation and Technology Programme (MEDIBTIKAR), Renauld said it is important for states to adopt the necessary policy that enables innovation, but it is also important for the state and for companies to be part of a network that facilitates knowledge exchange, and technology management and transfer.
"We shall acknowledge that companies do not innovate in isolation. It has been observed that the innovation performance of enterprises is reinforced when they form clusters and networks," he added.
Renauld said the existing experiences of support for innovation like economic incubators, technology transfer and access to early stage funding have been given as a concrete illustration and perspective for new strategies which will benefit the MEDA countries.
Regional cooperation tackles issues that have a transnational dimension and offers a value-added approach compared with purely national programmes, he added.
Derived from the words Mediterranean and Ibtikar (Arabic for innovation), the 7.3 million euro MEDIBTIKAR programme, which will run till March 31 next year, targets MEDA countries and public and private enterprises.
Participants in yesterday's Euro-Med funded conference, held under the theme "Empowering the Mediterranean to innovate," gave an overview of innovation support, highlighting challenges and obstacles hindering innovation in the wake of the current economic crisis.
Jordan Industrial Estates Corporation (JIEC) Director General Amer Majali, who inaugurated the conference, said the corporation serves as an umbrella for the support of development in the Kingdom, through various economic initiatives and innovation centres.
He added that JIEC's efforts are directed towards increasing exports and at the same time ensuring high quality products in accordance with international standards.
The European Union is also funding a parallel initiative aiming at boosting Jordan's scientific and technological capacities to contribute to economic development by increasing the commercialisation potential of research and technological value-added projects; developing an innovation-based culture and accelerating the integration of Jordan into the European research community.
The "Support to Research and Technological Development and Innovation Initiative and Strategies in Jordan programme is hosted in the Higher Council for Science and Technology.
By Hani Hazaimeh
© Jordan Times 2008
