Forum to Highlight Regional Challenges in Building Knowledge Base

Dubai: 27 October, 2007 - His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, will inaugurate the Knowledge Conference, which opens today at the Mina Salam in Dubai.

The two-day event brings together prominent Arab thinkers, researchers and academics to formulate strategies that will raise the standard of knowledge, research and university education in the region. The forum is the first initiative by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Foundation since its launch in May this year, and is part of its mission to contribute to human development in the Arab world.

Mohammed Al Gergawi, Chairman of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, said: "The agenda of the conference assumes greater significance, given the urgent need to contribute to human and knowledge development in the region. Through this conference, the Foundation offers a platform for leading Arab intellectuals to collaborate on collective and constructive action."

The opening ceremony will be attended by HE Amr Moussa, Arab League Secretary-General; HE Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference; HE Amat Al Aleem Alsoswa, Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Director of its Regional Bureau for Arab States; and, HE Dr Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The conference will include 15 sessions on educational reform, knowledge transfer, scientific research, cultural diversification, illiteracy, the brain drain, publishing and translation. White papers presented at the forum will influence discussions, while recommending policies that will drive the Foundation to realise its goals.

Launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed earlier this year with an endowment of US$10 billion, the Foundation seeks to build an intellectual infrastructure by investing in human and knowledge development and in higher education in the Arab world.

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© Press Release 2007