President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi inaugurated on Saturday the third Africa Forum on Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI).
The forum has the objective: “To achieve economic growth and enhance the competitiveness of the African private sector through the use of science, technology, and innovation. This, by urging the countries of the continent to invest more in research, higher education, and science; to build a knowledge economy; and not to miss the train of the new industrial revolution on the move.”
The forum, which is organised by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the African Development Bank, is being held in Cairo from 10-12 February.
About 35 African ministers of higher education and representatives of the public and private sector, as well as researchers and innovators, are taking part in the forum.
Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said that the forum comes within the framework of implementing the state’s plan for increasing benefits from its resources. He added that African countries have been linked by long, historic relations in the past, and now they share in building a better future by innovating tools and solutions to overcome the challenges facing the continent.
Abdel Ghaffar added further that Africa is looking forward to transferring from a rentier economy to a knowledge economy that is based on supporting technology and scientific research. He pointed out that the nations of Africa seek to counter poverty and disease, as well as find wealth that helps in enhancing the social and economic status and ensure a bright future for Africa and its people.
Egypt is interested in increasing expenditure on scientific research, said Abdel Ghaffar, adding that Egypt has improved its place in this field throughout the past four years. He added that Egypt provided a scientific base for improving the human capabilities in Africa in all fields, pointing out that Egypt has succeeded in establishing branches of its universities in many African countries.
The minister said that Al-Sisi has assigned the government to adopt an initiative to help young African researchers by increasing the number of scholarships available to them.
