Academician calls for more research centres

Manama: A prominent Bahraini academician has called for setting up research centres to help advance scientific studies.

"Unfortunately, there are few specialised research centres in the underdeveloped countries and there is an urgent need to set up institutions that encourage studies and provide resources," Abdullah Al Hawwaj, the president of Al Ahliya University, has said. "We need to invest more in promoting human intelligence and in enhancing young people's potential."

The private sector should play a more significant role in funding such centres and in encouraging people to engage more actively in studies and research, he said.

"The centres should have the latest technical and technological equipment to help with scientific research," said Al Hawwaj whose university was the first private high institution to be established in Bahrain.

An international report last month said that spending on scientific research does not exceed 0.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in most Arab countries, except in Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya, whose spending rates are in excess of 0.7 per cent. Spending in Arab countries is 97 per cent dependent on government funding.

The Arab Knowledge Report, a joint endeavour by the United Arab Emirates-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and the United Nations Development Program, said that the Arab world makes up only 1.1 per cent of global scientific publishing and the low level of investment into research has led to relatively low levels of innovation throughout the Arab world.

The lack of investment in academic and scientific research hampered the ability of Arab nations to meet global occupational, technical and higher education standards, the report said.

"While nations like Finland were found to spend $1,304 per person on scientific research each year, the annual share per Arab citizen of expenditure on scientific research does not exceed $10," the report said.
The total number of scientific articles published in 16 Arab countries in 2005 was 4,859. Egypt held first place with 34 per cent of the total number of publications, followed by Saudi Arabia and Tunisia with 11.8 per cent, while the percentages held by Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, and the UAE ranged from 4.7 to 9 per cent.

The lack of emphasis on modern communication technologies and specialized sciences has resulted in an absence of a critical mass of highly skilled professionals equipped with the ability to innovate and capable of answering the needs of the marketplace, the report, released in Dubai on October 28, said.