A side of the visit of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research accompanied by the Minister of Knowledge Economy and Startups
Mr. Kamal Baddari, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Mr. Yassine Oualid, Minister of Economy of Knowledge, Startups and Micro-Enterprises, during their visit to the University of El Oued
- Students are the entrepreneurs of the future for the transition to the knowledge economy.
- Professor Baddari announces a national university afforestation project of 1 million trees.
- The University of El Oued is a national leader in patents and startups
Both the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Kamal Baddari, and the Minister of Economy of Knowledge, Startups and Micro-Enterprises, Dr. Yassine El Mahdi Oualid, stressed to students and professors at the University of El Oued that university students are the entrepreneurs of the future for Algeria’s entry into the knowledge and technology-based economy.
Kamal Baddari explained to students and professors of the University of Shahid Hamou Lakhder that his message to them is to “feed the ideas of students and professors in the field of creating startups and micro-economic enterprises and the role of students as entrepreneurs in the near future.” Baddari addressed the students, saying, “Your role makes you entrepreneurs and actors in socio-economic change in this movement that Algeria is experiencing thanks to the innovations and creative work that you are doing in the various spaces of the university institutions.” He pointed out the importance of startups and the knowledge economy in creating wealth and providing jobs, stressing that “the future of students lies in startups and entrepreneurial thinking, as the economy has become based on precision technology, robotics and artificial intelligence.”
Minister of Knowledge Economy, Startups and Micro-enterprises, Dr. Yacine El-Mahdi Oualid, stressed in his speech that Algeria needs a new class of young entrepreneurs, and that it relies on the university to be a cradle for entrepreneurs, regardless of the nature of their activities. He considered that the micro-enterprises and startups created by young people are likely to “create jobs and transform our economy, which is based on the exploitation of natural resources, into a new economy based on knowledge and young skills. The University of El Oued is a pioneer in the field of patents and startups nationally.”
On the occasion, the university president, Professor Omar Farhati, gave a summary of the university’s achievements supported by figures, where the University of El Oued ranks first nationally in patents with 166 patents and 140 startups. The wilaya and the wilaya popular council allocated financial credits for the benefit of the new medical annex.
The ministerial delegation, during its visits to the various facilities and institutions of the University of El Oued, was accompanied by the wali of the wilaya, the president of the wilaya popular council, the local authorities, the university president, the director of the Higher School of Saharan Agriculture, the director of university services and the university staff.
After planting the first trees in the university space and inspecting the “Green Algeria” project, Kamal Baddari announced the launch of a national project to plant trees in universities, which consists of planting 1 million trees at a rate of one tree per university student. This environmental project comes within the framework of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research’s strategy to create a green and clean university environment based on trees and green spaces.
During the visit, the two ministers inaugurated the Artificial Intelligence House at the university headquarters and the Interfaces Center at the university pole in the February 18 district, which includes the business incubator, the entrepreneurship development center, the technology and innovation support center, and the university-institution liaison office. They also visited the exhibition of innovative projects and institutions and the Higher School of Saharan Agriculture, where they saw an exhibition of agricultural products by economic operators, the waste sorting process, and the environmental project on the green crescent.
The two ministers also visited some of the facilities of the Saleh Hada university campus and talked to international students. They listened to a recitation in classical Arabic presented by students from Uzbekistan who are studying the Arabic language at the Faculty of Arts and Languages at the University of El Oued.
At the end of their visit, the two ministers oversaw the awarding of certificates to student athletes who had achieved good results in their disciplines, the awarding of an accreditation certificate to the first university sports club, the awarding of an accreditation certificate to some economic sub-institutions, and the honoring of the inventor student Mohamed Kassab for his invention of a drawing board for the blind, where models of it were donated to the blind with the magic cane that helps in crossing, and the honoring of the owner of a start-up company with a patent, and the honoring of Mr. Maâli Fouad, the owner of the “Green Algeria” project.
