The Seventh Annual Conference of the Arab Thought Foundation (FIKR 7) kicks off

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To continue to achieve recognition as the premier conference in the region, by offering program content that is stimulating, timely and meaningful, particularly to people in the region, the Seventh Annual Conference of the Arab Thought Foundation (FIKR 7), headlined 'The Culture of Development', will feature the most prominent intellectuals, leading business people, investors, media executives, technology pioneers, entrepreneurs, academics and strategic thinkers in the Arab world, along with their international counterparts.

The Arab Thought Foundation Seventh Conference (FIKR 7) will be held in the City of Cairo, the capital of the Arab Republic of Egypt, from November 13th to 16th 2008, under the patronage of His Excellency President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak.

(FIKR 7) will have recourse to the 'Youth Café', an innovative methodology through which Arab youths will raise, during a whole day (November 13th), courageous and daring conversations along with Arab pioneer intellectuals and decision-makers.

Arab youth will converse in small groups then link and build on each other's discussions as youth move between groups to cross-pollinate ideas, and discover new insights into the questions or issues that are most important in their lives, work and communities. Furthermore, the Youth Café will raise the issue of 'Arab Youth Identity'.

The program of the second day (November 14th) consist of and 'Education café', and will discuss the topic 'the school role as a source for development and reform', emphasizing on the importance of guaranteeing the continuity of school development, and the necessity to establish cooperation and relations amongst educational institutions.

During the session, a number of speakers will briefly expose the raised discussion points as well as successful examples relating to the educational development, at the school level.

The conference will be launched on November 15th during an official opening, after which successive sessions will take place and will continue during the next day November 16th; the conference will be closed by the Second Arab Creativity Award Ceremony.

(FIKR7) represents an engaging, stimulating, and meaningful opportunity to exchange diverse views and perspectives amongst the best minds and pioneer intellectuals in the Arab world, all eager to reach integrated and sustainable development in our Arab region.

The assembled leaders will try to answer the following questions: What are the concepts of 'The Culture of Development'? How is the process of development currently underway in the Arab world? What are the challenges ahead in the process of development? What are the requirements needed for the Culture of Development to flourish? And finally, what is beyond the Culture of Development?

Through its Seventh Annual Conference (FIKR 7) 'The Culture of Development', the Arab Thought Foundation seeks to enrich and promote the process of development in the Arab world by investing the culture as a core of the development process in the Arab world.

His Royal Highness Prince Bandar Bin Khalid Al-Faisal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Chairman of FIKR Conference's Steering Committee stated in this respect: 'The Seventh Annual Conference (FIKR7) aims at closely examining development in its intellectual and cultural comprehensive concept, so that the pursued development be reached, thus leading to the Arab society advancement; this shall not be an easy task for us since it entails several challenges encountered to formulate a clear strategy and future plans to achieve the pursued objective'.

His Royal Highness added: '(FIKR 7) raises several vital issues of comprehensive development in the Arab world as well as the role the culture plays to introduce the changes and the pursued development; therefore, it is necessary for me to ascertain that 'Culture' does not solely relate to the economic condition, as it is also affected by the general social condition inside the societies, and this is what we intend to discuss in our Conference and endeavor to develop and avail of its advantages'.

Mr. Hamad AlAmmari, FIKR Conferences Executive Director said:

'The Arab Thought Foundation Annual Conference (FIKR 7) raises several vital issues of comprehensive development in the Arab world, noting that the importance of the culture emanates from the necessary awareness to achieve advancement, introduce changes and adopt development means deemed to be more efficient than the traditional means. This is what we intend to achieve with the participation of elite intellectuals and decision-makers in the Arab world, in cooperation with young people who assume the largest part of the responsibility in materializing the ideas and spreading 'The Culture of Development' concept.