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Dubai Municipality Sustainability Talks focus on post-oil scenario

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Applied Sustainability and Renewable Energy Department in Dubai Municipality continues the weekly sessions of its Sustainability Talks initiative, which will last until mid-May.

The Sustainability Talks has been attracting a wide range of people who engage in dialogue sessions with leading figures from the UAE’s government and private sectors and discuss sustainability, environmental, economic and community issues.

The Sustainability Talks present the latest global solutions and trends from the perspective of sustainability, based on the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai one of the smartest and most sustainable cities in the world by 2021. The initiative is also as part of the Municipality’s keenness to achieve the UAE’s sustainability strategies.

The third and fourth sessions referred to the ways and means of developing a generation to cope with the changes in the needs of the labour market through the development of innovation in the minds of tomorrow’s youth.

Hence, the fourth session of the Sustainability Talks focused on linking the academic field and the requirements of the industry by hosting the President of Dubai University, Dr. Issa Al Bastaki.

He offered his view through the presentation of the vital system of innovation and creativity with global standards in the UAE, which in turn includes the establishment of human cadres capable of producing creative research and inventions that support the industry and the emergence of local national companies with global orientation.

Al Bastaki pointed out that the technological boom that we are witnessing at present is only the product of research and development as the employment of technology has contributed to the advancement of the country and accelerated the pace of progress and delivery efficiently and with high quality.

The third session was hosted by Dr. Manahel Thabet, Knowledge Economy Expert and Founder and CEO of SmartTips Consultants, where she discussed how to develop a culture of innovation in the curriculum.

"When dependence on oil resources stops, future generations will be the mainstay of the local economy," she pointed out. The focus of the dialogue was to revive the culture of innovation in education systems at an advanced stage at the academic level. Thabet also referred to the words of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who said that the development of human minds is the global currency of the economy of the twenty-first century.

Eng. Ahmed Saeed Al Badwawi, Director of Applied Sustainability and Renewable Energy Department at Dubai Municipality, said that the main challenge at the moment is to connect creative and innovative minds within the wheel of development to reach a diverse national economy that generates income sources that are not dependent on oil and traditional resources.

He said the aim of launching the Sustainability Talks is to enrich the community culture and the Municipality’s participation in the public – private sector partnership in strengthening the corporate relations between the members of the community, in addition to enabling individuals to play an active role supporting Dubai’s future development to create a strong and sustainable economy based on the best international standards, which contributes to the future direction of the government after oil.

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