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Tunisian President chairs international conference on knowledge economies

Tuesday, 01 December 2009 23:19

Tunisian_President_chairs_international_conference_on_knowledge_economies

The international conference on knowledge economies, which opened at the Tunisian Presidential Palace of Carthage, Tunis, under the chairmanship of Tunisian President Mr Zine El Abidine Ben Ali , started its first working session today afternoon.

The conference’s first working session, presided over by Mr Nouri Jouini, Minister of Development and International Cooperation of Tunisia, featured a high-level round table on the knowledge economy.

The round table, chaired by ISESCO Director General Dr Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, gathered Mrs Shamshad Akhtar, Regional Vice-President of the World Bank; Prof. Mohamed Seghir Babes, President of the National Social and Economic Council (CNES) of Algeria; Prof. Fathi Mohamed Khalifa, Minister of State in Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Sudan; Dr Ali Saad, Education Minister of Syria; Mr Adel Touissi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Science and Technology of Jordan; Dr Mohamed El-Aziz Ben Achour, Director General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO); Mrs Mervat Talawi, UN Vice-Secretary, Former ESCWA Executive Secretary; Mr Habib Ben Yahia, Secretary General of the Arab Maghreb Union; Dr Manar Al-Moneef, Director General for Health Care & Life Sciences at the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA); Dr Hisham El Sherif, Chairman and CEO – IT Investments (Egypt); Prof. Okyu Kwon, Former Prime and Finance Minister of Korea; Dr Zeine Ould Zeidane, Former Prime Minister of Mauritania; and Dr Hameed Opeloyeru, Representative of the OIC Secretary General.

The round table was moderated by Mr Tarik Youssef, Founding Dean of the Dubai School of Government.

For the record, the international knowledge economies conference is being held jointly by ISESCO, the World Bank and the Tunisian Ministry of Education and Training.

President Ben Ali’s address on knowledge economy
“In the Name of God, Merciful and Compassionate,
Your Excellency Dr.Abdulaziz Altwaijri, Director General of ISESCO,
Dr.Shamshad Akhtar, Vice-President of the World Bank,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests of Tunisia,

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to open today, by the grace of God, this international high-level conference on “Building knowledge economies: towards creating job opportunities, promoting competitiveness and achieving a balanced development. I would like to say that Tunisia is indeed proud of hosting this meeting, and to commend the ISESCO initiative to organize it jointly with the World Bank.

I wish to extend a warm welcome to Dr.Abdulaziz Altwaijri, to our distinguished guests from the World Bank, to their Excellencies, to experts, and to all participants in this conference. I also wish to commend the Tunisia-ISESCO cooperation which, in recent years, has been marked by a positive diversity, covering various fields of common concern. Special tribute should be paid to the director general of ISESCO, Dr.Abdulaziz Altwaijri, for his efforts to enhance the ISESCO role on the regional and international scene, especially through holding conferences and training sessions concerning various strategic sectors that are vital for the present and future of Islamic peoples, particularly the dissemination of digital culture, the promotion of scientific research, and the development of educational curricula.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset of the new millennium, our world is witnessing an expanding digital, scientific, technological and economic disparity between nations. This imbalanced world situation generates concern and dissatisfaction, especially in light of the intensifying disparities and discrepancies in growth rates and in the pace of progress between developed and developing nations.

We reaffirm on this occasion that the knowledge and digital divide is essentially a development gap before being a technological discrepancy. We, therefore, have no other path but to keep pace with the knowledge and digital revolution, while relying essentially on our human resources, by enhancing such vital sectors as education, training, higher education, scientific research, and other fields that have a deep impact in shaping individual personality and in building society. Tunisia has early realized the importance of ICT and the need to benefit from these technologies. Since the beginning of the 1990s, it has undertaken to reform and promote the sectors of education, training, higher education, scientific research and technology. One third of the state budget goes to these sectors. A large network of schools, faculties, high institutes and research centres has been established in all regions of the country.

We have endeavoured to make best use of ICT in educational, cultural, youth and higher education institutions. We have generalized Internet connection in primary and secondary schools, vocational training centres, public libraries, youth and culture centres, in addition to higher education and scientific research institutions. We have established a coherent system for upgrading the level of teachers and trainers in this field, as well as for producing digital resources that cover the programmes of the second cycle of basic education and the secondary education cycle, by the end of 2014. Action is also underway, in all primary schools, to equip classrooms devoted to the teaching of sciences and technology with the digital resources specific to these subjects, and to generalize broadband Internet in all primary and secondary schools, so as to offer all students access to the electronic education network.

We have attached special importance to the sector of higher education, scientific research and technology, by developing the diploma system, renewing teaching contents, diversifying fields of specialization, and enhancing applied training, promising disciplines, and partnership with the environment. We have adopted training contents that respond to the needs of the job market and meet the standards of quality in all applied and professional diplomas.
For the evolution of economy in the world shows a continuously decreasing reliance on ordinary workers, and an increasing recruitment of specialized, highly-skilled workers, especially in scientific, technical and economic sectors and in new occupations. The competition strategy in world markets is no longer based on raw natural resources and the traditional workforce, but rather on industries, products and services with high added value, marked by innovative designs and intelligent skills that are the fruit of the knowledge economies. We have accordingly focused our action on upgrading our universities so that they can absorb the new specialties, as well as on keeping up with the evolution of our economic, social, and cultural fabric, so as to provide jobs that meet the needs of our country.

For instance, we have increased the percentage of engineering graduates aged between 20 and 29, in order to provide highly qualified and competent skills for our national economy. We have established a plan aimed at creating more Schools of Engineering during the coming five-year-period, increasing the number of engineering graduates, and enhancing the applied dimension in their training in partnership with the production sector, so as to facilitate their professional integration.
We have expanded the fields of cooperation between Schools of Engineering in Tunisia and prestigious Schools of Engineering abroad, so as to guarantee quality
We have also been keen on orienting two-thirds of the students toward applied training, and on providing tracks that are more adapted to market needs and are based on partnership between academics and professionals.
We have also focused attention on such promising disciplines as computer science, communication, engineering, arts and crafts, technological and medical studies, and applied languages. As part of the implementation of our programme for the previous term (2004-2009), we increased to 50,000 the number of students oriented toward computer sciences, communications and multimedia.

We generalized the teaching of computer science and corporate culture in all tracks and disciplines. We established professional integration units in all higher education institutions, along with observatories in universities to follow up graduates and identify market needs. Our programme for the coming five-year-term (2009-2014) provides for ensuring quality and meeting international standards and norms in our training and education system. We have integrated the higher education sector within the quality system that targets all sectors and institutions.

We have increased the number of joint diplomas between our higher education institutions and their counterparts in developed countries, with which we have concluded agreements for the joint supervision of doctoral dissertations. We are convinced that the “programme-contracts” concluded between universities and the State will contribute to enhancing the quality of training offers and to achieving national priorities in terms of economic development. They will also help upgrade universities to reach the stage of self-autonomy and to develop their institutions, programmes and working methods, while being committed to the sectorial strategic orientations as well as to transparency and subsequent monitoring.

Aware of the importance of scientific research and technological innovation in establishing knowledge economies, we have increased the percentage of expenditures devoted to research and development to reach 1.25% in 2009. We have also decided to increase, once again, the GDP share of scientific research and technology from 1.25% currently to 1.5% in 2014. Our aim is to enhance our country’s competitive capacity at the international level, especially as we have established numerous incentives for economic enterprises so that they undertake to promote development-oriented research, either directly or in cooperation with the specialized public institutions.

We will launch the implementation of an ambitious national programme for technologies and technological parks, covering all regions of the country. This programme targets various vital sectors having a strategic character, such as communication technologies, energy, water, food industries, large-scale farming, the environment, pharmaceutical industries, textile and clothing, electronics, bio-technology and nano-technology.

We are keen to make sure every techno pole serves as a space for integration and complementarity between all the components of the sector of higher education, scientific research and technological innovation, enhancing the value of research results, and using them to serve economic development. We have established a large network of business incubators, and formulated a set of national programmes for research and development, so as to use research results in the service of economic development, give an added value to Tunisian material and immaterial products, and enhance technological innovation in economic enterprises.

Tunisia was the first African country to have been connected to the Internet in 1991. It has adopted a comprehensive policy in this field, based on providing significant reductions in the rates for access to these technologies, establishing a large network of private Internet service providers, and encouraging individuals and families to purchase computers with Internet access. We have established a national data transmission network with high-speed international connection. We have provided various incentives to boost investment in this sector. We have established a modern ICT pole, and installed mobile phone networks covering all regions of the country.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Knowledge has become an essential factor for enhancing technological innovation, boosting economic activity, creating jobs, and consolidating competitiveness at national and international levels.

To that end, we have provided for our country propitious conditions to master communication technologies and to lay the foundations of the information society and the knowledge economy, especially in promising sectors and new occupations, and in all specialties that can help us boost our economic growth, consolidate our competitive capacity, and provide more job opportunities for our youth. This has allowed us to achieve encouraging results, as testified to by various indicators and international assessments. The World Bank Report (2009) ranks Tunisia 69th out of 181 states, in terms of “ease of doing business”. Moreover, the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report (2009) ranks Tunisia 40th out of 133 states. The value of industrial exports increased from 1.3 billion dinars in 1987 to 19 billion dinars in 2008, including the exports of mechanical, electric and electronic industries which reached 6.2 billion dinars, the exports of textile, clothing and leather which increased fivefold, and the exports of pharmaceutical industries which rose twentyfold.
We, in fact, want to make of Tunisia a regional and international centre for business and services, especially as our country boasts highly-skilled and competent human resources, modern infrastructures in all fields, and developed legislations that encourage initiative and investment.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Tunisia called, in 1998, for organizing a world summit on the information society under the aegis of the United Nations. In 2005, it hosted the second phase of this summit, which came out with the famous Tunis Declaration that called for establishing a fair and solidarity-based information and communication order.

While reiterating our call for digital solidarity among all countries, we suggest that the ISESCO establishes a specific programme for the building of the knowledge economy, to be funded by the member states, so as to enhance cooperation and complementarity among our states in achieving development and growth.

We also call on our states to rely on and invest in ICT and to enhance partnership in this field between the public and private sectors, so that we can keep pace with our time with maximum chances of success and progress. We have asserted, on various occasions that meeting the current challenges requires being equipped with science and knowledge stepping up action and effort, and preparing generations that have the necessary skills and competences to ensure our peoples’ prosperity and our countries’ invulnerability.
To conclude, I once again welcome you to Tunisia, wishing all success to your conference.
Thank you for your attention”.

Global Arab Network