Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award 2019 Laureates: Education And Knowledge Key For Positive Disruption

Day one of the sixth Knowledge Summit concluded with a panel discussion with the winners of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award.

The award went to three winners, namely Saudi Aramco which was represented by its Chairman of Knowledge Management and Innovation Boards Dr. Jamil Al-Bagawi; Singapore’s National Institute for Education (NIE) with NIE Director Prof. Christine Goh accepting the Award; and Henrik von Scheel, Originator of Industry 4.0.

Attending the session on behalf of Saudi Aramco, Mr. Khalid Al-Onaizi, Knowledge Management Board Vice Chairman, said Saudi Aramco incentivises knowledge-sharing to encourage employees to invest their time in learning. “With over 60,000 employees, Saudi Aramco follows a different approach for knowledge-sharing and has appointed 20 managers for our knowledge programme,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, NIE’s Chief Planning Officer Prof. Chang Chew Hung represented the Institute during the session, underlining the importance of educating teachers – “the core focus for NIE.” Singapore has 360 schools employing 34,000 teachers, all of whom were trained by NIE. The institute, which aims to bridge research, theory, and practice, has international collaborations in 64 countries and works towards making the teachers of today future-ready.

The man behind Industry 4.0 (the Fourth Industrial Revolution), Henrik von Scheel, said humankind needs to rethink the age-old ideas of economics and productivity to sustain itself. “We, as a generation, are at the crossroads of change and we have 10 years to find alternatives to conventional energy sources to survive,” he said. “Everything around us needs to be interconnected; digitalisation is the way forward.”

Von Scheel presented a 30-year to-do list for humankind noting that the consumption of natural gas and coal needs to decline by 62% by 2050; renewables like wind and solar need to make up 97% of energy needs and 90% of protein needs to be cultured meat and so on.

Dubai can take the lead in building smart cities because of its ‘can-do’ attitude, he said.

Organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF), the 2019 Knowledge Summit – ‘Knowledge: the Path for Sustainable Development’ – took place at the Dubai World Trade Centre on November 19-20, showcasing experiences and best practices that have helped countries drive development across various sectors.