Mark Crowell, Deputy Head of Innovation and Economic Development at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) called at the final session of the second day of the 9th Global Competitiveness Forum for supporting research centers of Saudi universities specialized in promoting new business ideas poised to upgrade their skills and assist them to reach their goals through scientific ways. He stressed the importance of increasing aspects of cooperation to solve the processes oriented to augment research in promising fields, noting that the Kingdom is offering its youths and business pioneers to take part in government projects infrastructure and development. For his part, the Director of Competitiveness and Projects Development at Parson Global Foundation Shankar Selgam said during the session that the basic concept of changes index focuses on raising the free trade edge and further organizing it to liberate many products, noting that the Kingdom has made great strides in this regard and that ways of reaching highly competitiveness-associated capital were discussed. He drew the attention to the importance of lowering of energy and communications products prices, particularly in view of the current fierce competitiveness witnessed by these sectors, adding that encouraging the youths to adopt pioneering ideas in the high-and-profit-taking service sectors is critically required in the current time. Shankar said contribution rather than privatization is important to give the competitiveness a chance as is the situation everywhere in the world. On the other hand, we have to be able to practice free investment, he said, adding that the environmental system should work in a good way and it is possible that we could find youths who practice their innovative ideas outside the traditional boundaries amid the challenges the Kingdom is facing in view of oil falling prices. The Director of Competitiveness and Projects Development at Parson Global Foundation Shankar Selgam went on to say that government-crediting in the Kingdom is low in comparison with the United Arab Emirates, a indication that encourages the competitiveness through granting more investment loans. He said privatization should take place through competitiveness and refraining from monopolization, but in this case, he added, we are going to proceed to giant conglomerates of the private sectors' monopoly and this is not against competitiveness. So, government agencies should provide support for market new-comers and not depend on giant renowned companies through offering them developmental or infrastructure projects of the country. For her part, the Head of M.A.T. Forum for the Arab World projects Hala Fadhel said during yesterday's session that the competitiveness forum has adopted as priority the pioneering mentality and openness freedom to think in a different way to innovate in the field of new smart projects, underscoring the importance of building bridges between business pioneers and government bodies to allow them contact with each other and overcome difficulties.
