WAITRO appoints TechnoPark as Regional Focal Point for MENA region

To corroborate the new appointment of TechnoPark as the Middle Eastern RFP, representatives from TechnoPark have been invited to WAITRO's 61st Executive Committee (EXCOM) and RFP Meeting, WAITRO Biennial Congress and WAITRO General Assembly to be held in Kuala Lumpur from 11-14 August 2008. Officials from TechnoPark will present a strategic Work Plan for the Middle East and Africa Region at the EXCOM and RFP meeting.

This new development comes close on the heels of a recent agreement formed between both parties. Earlier this year, TechnoPark signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with WAITRO, on the establishment of a structured framework for close interaction and initiatives with WAITRO member organizations in a broad spectrum of industry-oriented services and projects.

In its role as MENA Regional Focal Point, TechnoPark's main responsibilities will be to determine the region's needs and initiate strategies and plans to make it a more technology focused area.

Mr. Hamad Al Hashemi, Managing Director, TechnoPark stated:

"We are very pleased to be appointed WAITRO's regional focal point for the MENA region. In the last year, we have had the opportunity to work closely with WAITRO and this latest development further fortifies our burgeoning partnership. In our capacity as the RFP for this region, we hope to encourage, facilitate, and open channels for application-oriented scientific research, building sustainable local capacity and ultimately furthering economic growth within the region."

Mr. Al Hashemi added: "Our aim is to develop TechnoPark not only as the core scientific business incubator of the entire region but also a vital centre that can be relied on for its cutting-edge R&D services that promote long-term sustainable development in neighbouring countries. "

Dr. Dieter Fuchs, President and Chairman of WAITRO, who signed an individual Memorandum of Understanding with TechnoPark, on behalf of Fraunhofer Middle East says that:

"TechnoPark intends to contract out services within individual project arrangements with strong WAITRO members, and sees this partnership as a long-term strategic alliance. This also provides an opportunity to others members, mainly within the MENA Region to get involved and play an important role in supplementing their businesses by sustainable local capacity building, educational and research and technology oriented measures for the benefit of the partners."

Other regional focal points for WAITRO are the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa- for the African region; Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany- for the European region; Brazilian Association of Technological Research Institutions (ABIPTI) - for the Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) region and The Indonesian Institute of Science (UPI) - for the Asia Pacific region.