Technicians from both the public and private sectors are attending a three-day workshop aimed at underpinning long-term development growth.
The workshop has been organised by the Ministry of Investment, Natural Resources and Industry in collaboration with Unesco, with the expertise of Danish Professor Eric Thulstrup who will lead the conference over the three days.
It was officially opened yesterday by the principal secretary for Industry, Lucy Athanasius, who said that the importance of science, technology and innovation (STI) to the sustainable development of our economy and our livelihoods cannot be overstressed.
“It is the only way today that we will be able to grow, compete and survive in the global context,” she said.
She noted that contributions at the session must be geared to reforming and optimising STI for enterprise development, wealth and job creation, as well as enhanced global competitiveness.
At the same time the revised policy we come up with must reinforce the requirement for provision and utilisation of STI infrastructure for the attainment of the macro-economic and socio-economic objectives spelled out only recently in the Expo 2020.
To quote President James Michel in his opening address on March 28, 2011 for the “Smart partnership National Dialogue”:
“The theme of the Expo reflects our vision for the new Seychelles … You are being called upon to become ‘joint architects’ in the transformation of our society.”
Ms Athanasius added that the fact that the President went on to ask… “How best to apply the latest scientific and technological progress in the world to effect the transformation of our society”, reaffirms her belief that he was putting STI at the centre of creating our New Seychelles.
“This, to me, was a clear signal of the pivotal role that science, technology and innovation are to have in the transformation of Seychelles toward realising the future we touched in the Expo 2020 earlier in March this year,” said Ms Athanasius.
She noted that though Seychelles has come a long way in its development, we still have far to go.
In working to finalise this national STI policy, we have over these two days a unique opportunity to affect the pace of STI development in Seychelles.
She said we must effect a change in mindset on STI, that will allow for real transformative change prompting people to think differently about their commitment to solving problems, willingness to invest in addressing them and about their passion to really see that we create a world that is different from today’s.
Ms Athanasius said we have a vision, we’ve touched the future and must now forge a competitive and relevant national policy that will be the bedrock from which we will begin to see the structures of our sustainable future emerge.
After a welcoming address by Dr Marie-Reine Hoareau, Unesco’s local representative, delegates also heard from Dr Anthony Maduekwe, programme specialist for science of the UN body in Dar Es Salaam.
He said science and technology underpins long-term growth and every year Seychelles should add to its STI capabilities.
Dr Maduekwe said Seychelles should create an environment that allow the more brilliant people to come to the fore in order to channel their capabilities for innovation of creative ideas.
Topics presented by Dr Thulstrup include “making science useful in a small developing country” and “Research in a small country - Is it worthwhile?”
0 comments :
Post a Comment