Madinah hosts global academics in first Saudi knowledge forum

Source: BI-ME , Author: BI-ME staff

Posted: 19-06-2008 Back  Email  Print  RSS Feeds

 

 

SAUDI ARABIA. The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) together with Knowledge Economic City will be hosting the first conference for knowledge and the sciences in the Holy City of Madinah on 22-24 June 2008. The Noor (or ‘light’) Conference will bring together international experts and leading academics from across the world to discuss leading edge research and hypotheses in the fields of information communications technology and medicine.

 

Noor will allow participants to discuss and exchange ideas, research results, development activities, and applications in one of the historical centres of the Islamic faith. It is hoped that Noor and with it the US$7 billion Knowledge Economic City will become the foundation of knowledge-based industries in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a renaissance of scientific leadership in the Islamic world.

 

Noor will become an annual event, following this, its inaugural year, and will focus each year on different sciences.  This year healthcare and information communications technology will be the main themes. Leaders from such reputable international organizations as Harvard University, Stanford University, the Association of Muslim Scientists in the US and the Islamic Foundation from the UK will gather in Madinah to discuss topics ranging from smart cities and hybrid vehicles to autism and genetic disorders.

 

HE Amr Abdullah Al-Dabbagh, Governor of SAGIA, commented: “Hosting the annual global forum Noor in Al-Madinah, bringing the leading scientists, intellectuals, business people and public sector leaders together in one of history’s great intellectual centres, is just one small step toward creating the ultimate intellectual milieu for stimulating the next generation of knowledge creation. On behalf of the organisers and participating scientists, I offer my gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, HRH Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, and HRH Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Majed, Governor of Al-Madinah Province, for their support for the forum.”

 

Fahd Hamidaddin, Marketing & Corporate Communications General Director for SAGIA, added: “The Noor forum attracts business people from all around the Islamic world and I urge Saudi businesses to participate, so that they may benefit from the innovation, creativity, scientific vision and investment opportunities presented by the forum. Together, these elements will make the Prophet’s Holy City a beacon for the Islamic world and further elevate Saudi Arabia’s status as a global investment hub.”

 

He added: “The forum received hundreds of papers from scientists around the world who were eager to participate. Our scientific committee has selected only the best 40 for the event and we look forward to welcoming innovators from the leading universities and companies, such as Stanford University, NASA, the Mayo Clinic and Google.”

 

Papers on the first day of the event will discuss issues of healthcare, and range from, transforming health education to strategies to decrease genetic disorder. The second day will showcase a number of papers dedicated to ICT, where topics covered a wide spectrum from pro-innovation infrastructure to next generation tech-investments.

 

Note: Knowledge Economic City (KEC) is one of four integrated economic cities planned to be constructed in Saudi Arabia that will become the nucleus of establishing a knowledge-based society in the Kingdom. It has the distinguished advantage of its location that carries special importance to Muslims which helps to attract Muslim talents from all over the world. With a volume of investment that will exceed SAR 30 billion and total land area of 4.8 million square metres, the city will be able to support a population of 150,000. The KEC will create 20,000 new jobs and establish an alternative central business district with state of the art facilities and infrastructure that are easily accessible to the residents of Al-Madinah and its visitors.

 

 

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