Mr. Kamal Baddari, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, accompanied by Mr. Yassin Walid, Minister of Knowledge Economy, Startups and Micro-Enterprises, during their visit to the University of El Oued.
- Students are the future entrepreneurs for the transition to the knowledge economy.
- Professor Baddari announces a national university afforestation project of 1 million trees.
- And the University of El Oued is a pioneer in patents and start-ups nationally.
Both the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Kamal Baddari, and the Minister of the Knowledge Economy, Start-ups and Micro-enterprises, Dr. Yassine Mehdi Ould, confirmed in front of students and professors at the University of El Oued that university students are the entrepreneurs of the future to lead Algeria into a knowledge- and technology-based economy.
Kamal Baddari explained to the students and professors of the University of Shahid Hamma Lakhdar that his message to them is “to nurture the ideas of students and professors in the field of creating start-ups and micro-economic enterprises and the role of students as entrepreneurs in the near future.” Baddari addressed the students, “Your role makes you entrepreneurs and actors in social and economic change in this movement that Algeria is experiencing thanks to the innovations and creative work that you do in different spaces of the university institutions.” He pointed out the importance of start-ups and the knowledge economy in creating wealth and providing jobs, stressing that “the future of students lies in start-ups and entrepreneurial thinking, given that the economy is now based on precision technology, robotics and artificial intelligence.”
For his part, the Minister of the Knowledge Economy, Start-ups and Micro-enterprises, Dr. Yassine Mehdi Ould, stressed in his speech that “Algeria needs a new class of young entrepreneurs, and it relies on the university to be a cradle for entrepreneurs, whatever the nature of their activities.” He considered that the micro-enterprises and start-ups created by young people are likely to “provide 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 start-ups 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 start-ups. The wilaya and the wilaya people’s 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 People’s Council, the local authorities, the University President, the Director of the Higher School of Saharan Agriculture, the Director of University Services and the University’s executives.
Upon planting the first trees of a university space and inspecting the “Green Algeria” project, Kamal Baddari announced the launch of a national project to afforest university institutions, 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 18 February neighborhood, which includes the business incubator, the entrepreneurship development center, the technology and innovation support center and the university-business 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 of economic operators, the waste sorting process and the environmental project on the green crescent.
The two ministers also visited some facilities of the Saleh Hadda university campus and spoke with international students and 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 supervised the awarding of certificates to student athletes who achieved good results in their specialties, the awarding of an accreditation certificate to the first university sports club, the awarding of an accreditation certificate to some economic subsidiaries 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 wand to help them move around, and the honoring of the owner of a start-up patent and the honoring of Mr. Maâli Fouad, the owner of the “Green Algeria” project.
