Why a learning event on the knowledge economy for MENA Countries?
There is a strong business case for building knowledge economies in MENA countries: • Finiteness of oil and gas reserves; • Economic vulnerability due to global price fluctuations of natural resources; • MENA countries’ long-term interest in developing a sophisticated, entrepreneurial and creative population; • The need to develop industries and services that are competitive on the global market; • Long-term sustainability of economic growth. MENA countries do however face several challenges to become successful Knowledge Economies: • Investment in science and technology, including IT infrastructure, is low across Arab countries, even by developing country standards. Furthermore, the outcomes of these investments in terms of patents and academic citations are also quite low. • The skills of Engineers and scientists trained locally are not necessarily in adequation with the local labor market demandes. As a result, science and engineering graduates cannot compete on the job market and t
