Princess Sumaya highlights women's role in creating prosperity

El Hassan Science City (EHSC) is seeking through its various programmes to develop entrepreneurship among women in Jordanian society, by helping build their confidence and spirit of achievement, HRH Princess Sumaya said on Sunday. “As we face our greatest ever existential challenges, it is time to consign discriminatory attitudes to the dustbin of history, and to acknowledge that women offer vast potential to create prosperity and to transmit education, ambition and hope to the next generation,” she added in her speech at the Global Thinkers Forum (GTF) 2012. The two-day forum, which opened on Sunday, focused on the role of female leaders in the Middle East and North Africa region. Princess Sumaya, president of the EHSC and the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), pointed to the strong correlation between the forum theme and the mission of El Hassan Science City, according to an RSS statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times on Monday. “Your theme resonates so clearly with our own work at El Hassan Science City — through our institutions, our programmes and our over-riding ethos of inclusion. We are committed to promoting the rights of all citizens, regardless of background or gender, to participate and to create wealth, happiness and prosperity,” the princess said. In conclusion, she urged intellectual and scientific institutions to provide different members of society with the chance to benefit from the opportunities offered by science and technology, stressing that science is capable of positive change in our minds to build our country and achieve sustainable development. The EHSC participated in the forum as part of its mission to support economic and social development in Jordan as well as promote the concept of sustainable development, the statement said. El Hassan Science City was featured at the forum in a panel titled “The Importance of Science and Innovation for Development" through the participation of Odeh Al Jayyousi, vice president for science and research at the RSS; Wijdan Abu Haija, dean of the King Abdullah II Faculty of Engineering at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT); Omar Hamarneh, CEO of El Hassan Business Park; and Serene Shahin, executive director of the Drivers of Change Institute at RSS. The panel represented the “innovation ecosystem at work” at the EHSC, a non-government, not-for-profit organisation encompassing three main constituents: the RSS, PSUT and El Hassan Business Park. The interdependence of these three institutions creates an “Innovation Eco-System” capable of delivering large-scale synergies for the advancement of science, technology, and innovation in Jordan and the region, the statement said.