CAIRO: Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail announced on Wednesday the launch of the Zewail City of Science and Technology, a project rejected by the former regime.
“This project…or dream has started coming true yesterday,” said Sharaf. “It’s an[initiative] for scientific research as countries do not move forward except with scientific research.”
“We in the new government are particularly interested in education and scientific research in general and Zewail’s project in specific,” he added.
The complete name of the project is “The Zewail City of Science and Technology: Egypt’s National Project for scientific Renaissance.”
“This a great start to the Egypt of hope and the Egypt of the future,” said Zewail.
“Egypt is in a crucial moment in its history … [It] can’t rise without local production and the key to this is education and scientific research,” he added.
“This is not a university; this is a city to which outstanding graduates of secondary school would go to,” explained Zewail, adding that it will have a maximum of 5,000 students.
“There [in the city] they will learn the modern sciences,” he pointed out.
The city will have preeminence centers. “Today not can only country do everything, we have to be outstanding in a certain field,” for example energy, biotechnology or natural resources which Egypt is rich in, explained the 1999 Nobel chemistry price winner. “We have to compete in the international market.”
“This is not a university; this is an integrated city of sciences and research for the market and the economy,” he stressed.
The Zewail City of Science and Technology is an independent non-profit organization, which would have its own draft law to ensure transparency, and will be proposed to the elected parliament.
To ensure the independence of the organization, a board of trustees will be set. It’s members so far comprise six Nobel laureates and leading figures in a variety of fields, including Susan Hockfield, the President of MIT, and Gregorio L. Escario, the President of the Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT), as well as renowned international Egyptians Sir Magdy Yacoub, Dr. Mohamed Ghonim and businessmen Mohamed El Erian and Amr Younis.
The board of trustees will meet once or twice a year, while a board of consultants who will be based in Egypt with all-Egyptian members, who include Dr. Mohamed Ghonim, Mostafa El Sayed, Hazem El Biblawi and others yet to be announced.
The preliminary budget for the project is $1 billion fund and $1 billion in cash, said Zewail. A bank account is to be set up to encourage Egyptians to fund the project through donations.
The project was first proposed when Zewail was honored for receiving the Nobel in 1999. The construction of a facility in Sixth of October City for a national educational project was announced in 2000. But the project came to a quick halt. Ahmed Shafiq, in his month-long stint as prime minister earlier this year, said the project would be revived.
The Supreme Council for Armed Forces (SCAF) only approved the establishment of the Zewail City this week.
Zewail profusely thanked the SCAF, and the ministers who unanimously agreed on the project, the people and the youth “without whom the revolution wouldn’t have happened and the project seen the light.”
The ministerial legislature group headed by Yehia El-Gammal, deputy prime minister, which includes the ministers of planning, international cooperation, education, justice and foreign affairs, has agreed to the law approving the creation of the “City of Science” proposed by Egyptian scientist and Noble laureate Ahmed Zewail.
