World Innovation Summit for Education "WISE" 2010

Ladies and gentlemen,

I commend you all on your fruitful efforts during the past three days. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support for Qatar’s successful bid for hosting the 2022 World Cup.

Thanks to our collective efforts, WISE has become a main player in achieving the required change for a better world.

We in Qatar believe in the importance of putting words into action, this is our conviction upon which our vision is based; a vision which reminds me of Picasso’s famous words: “let us act first and talk later.”

Winning the 2022 World Cup bid taught us a valuable lesson.

We learned that Qatar’s youth, representing a part of the Arab youth and the World youth are capable of making the difference when well prepared and when given the opportunity to participate.

I am absolutely sure that mobilizing our latent capabilities here in the Arab World and using them strategically, can make of education not only a purpose, but also a strategic path leading us to become key players at the international scene.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is true that WISE was launched at a specific date, but it us who decide when its objectives are met.

It is my view that since perfection is endless, so is innovation. Hence, our summit will continue to receive and to host creative initiatives.

In that same context, I was delighted yesterday as everyone else I believe, with the quality of the award winning research projects this year and with the human, innovative and creative meanings they carry.

These projects represent an embodiment of our summit’s essence and therefore I am certain they will constitute the foundation for achieving our goals. As such, these projects must be accorded the ultimate importance and should be at the forefront of the private sector’s priorities. I refer here in particular to the business sector which should benefit from these projects. As a result, the contribution of the business sector in achieving the millennium development goals objectives will be achieved, and as such, we will be more realistic pragmatic.

The conclusions reached from the various sessions, and my participation in this morning’s session allocated to the relationship between our summit and the Millennium Development Goals, enhanced this conviction. Through the fruitful discussions and the main concerns raised, in addition to the constructive ideas emerging from various academic, professional, political and cultural backgrounds, I am certain that WISE, if invested properly, will lead without a doubt to opening wide horizons for developing quality education and expanding its reach.

I look forward for this summit to be engaged more and more in offering alternatives and solutions to the main educational problems and challenges we are facing ahead of the year 2015.

I look forward for WISE to become among the main initiatives leading to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All objective, in addition to enhancing and furthering the purposes of the Alliance of Civilizations.

I look forward for the WISE researches to pursue offering realistic solutions for the advancement of our educational systems in the Arab World, and to contribute to eradicating illiteracy which I consider as a dissonant to the intellectual and cultural human values.

Thank you and see you again at WISE’s third edition.