Abu-Ghazaleh Calls on the Government to Establish an Office of Crisis management, Shift to Knowledge Society and Double Production

08 Sep 2013   AMMAN----September 5, 2013---- HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, president of the Economic Policy Development Forum (EPDF) called on the Jordanian government to establish an office of crisis supervised by the government to act as an advisory body to address (cover) all the problems facing the economy and to find solutions stressing on the readiness of the EPDF to assist and participate in this effort.
 
During a lecture held at the Fuheis Cultural Forum with the attendance of business, education and thought leaders, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his respect to the people in Fuheis for their culture and citizenship, and their interaction with programs, projects and ideas that boost up the Kingdom.
 
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh tackled the current economic situation and stressed on the need to give priority to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in various sectors with special focus on education "Till this moment we have not introduced e-learning, this knowledge revolution in our curriculum and our academic programs, pointing out that all the universities in the world depend on teaching information technology, and stated that the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) completed in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization "UNESCO" a detailed report on the use of ICT in education and included several Arab countries including  Jordan, but there has not been any reaction yet from officials to express interest whether positively or negatively.
 
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed hope that the government is planning to build a knowledge society and create wealth from information technology that contributes to the prosperity of the national economy, stressing that reform in this great country is possible and there are proficient people with modern capabilities and skills, and my hope is to turn to a knowledge society and our national income to double; he also called  for enhancing productivity, and work to increase production and revenue to strengthen the state’s budget, which must be built on this basis while foreign aid shouldn’t be incorporated within the budget.
 
He also called on developing the tax system to include people with high income saying that it is not possible that taxes which are paid to government estimated at 2 billion Jordanian dinars due to late payment and tax evasion. 
 
A rich discussion followed the lecture with special focus on Intellectual Property in which Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stated that Jordan IP laws are in conformity with international standards, and the government's regulations and procedures are acceptable, saying: Intellectual Property has been founded to create innovation and the Europeans call it economic stimulus."
 
He added:"We are working with ESCWA and iPARK on the Commercialization Tour in Technology to take advantage of the innovative and creative energies in the Arab world by linking them with the owners of investment companies and a group of investors."
 
Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh concluded:"We, at TAG-Org, have achieved around 40 inventions with the efforts of our experts in the information technology field which led to the launch of TAGIPEDIA.
 
At the end of the lecture, Mr. Adel Daoud, head of the Fuheis Cultural Forum presented an Honorary Shield and on behalf of youth in Fuheis a souvenir was presented by Ms. Lama Daoud to Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh.