GCC countries set their sights on knowledge economy

GCC countries set their sights on knowledge economy

Author: Mon, 2019-12-02 02:26

DUBAI: The member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are increasingly moving toward becoming knowledge-based economies, a new report says “” with an important caveat.

Despite recent progress, the volume of research publications remains low compared with non-GCC countries, and is a long way behind more established knowledge economies, according to the report by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC).

The survey's findings and discussions with the region's research universities, have helped PwC to identify key challenges confronting the GCC research ecosystem.

These include attracting and retaining post-graduate and post-doctoral students; applying successfully for competitive funding; getting on board new researchers; mentoring and training of new researchers; and administrative support, such as grant application writing.

"GCC countries are very well aware about the issue (of poor volume of research),“ said Sally Jeffery, global education network leader at PwC.

"When we speak to ministries and universities, there's a common understanding of the issues they face, and they recognize the importance and urgency of it,“ she said.

Developing quality education, and introducing training for the local labor force are examples of initiatives that are expected to generate the PhDs of tomorrow. (Shutterstock)

"What's needed today is to move beyond the planning and start implementing. They can figure out the governance