Tabuk, and Al Jouf. The final workshop, which gathered, presented, and analyzed information that was used to develop the Knowledge Strategy, took place in the Diplomatic Quarter of Riyadh and brought together representatives from the Riyadh Province, Hail, and Al Qassim. [33] The Knowledge Strategy was the flagship study conducted by Al Aghar Group for a variety of reasons, mainly because it brought together guidelines from past studies under a cohesive knowledge-oriented framework. This allowed us to avoid clashing with various government agencies that have their own guidelines and interests. [34] The Knowledge Strateg y also reinforced the success of the Al Aghar Group’s methodology, which managed to bring together a diverse group of Saudi citizens to voluntarily meet and agree on ideas despite their differing backgrounds as ministers, business leaders, specialists, and government officials. All participants were unanimous in their view about the need to invest in and concentrate efforts on building up the Kingdom’s knowledge base. The government has also invested in public education through the King Abdullah Program for Education Development; higher education through universities, scholarships, and the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology; King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology; technical and vocational training programs; as well as other programs offered by various ministries. Each of these educational opportunities aimed to build up expertise in the Kingdom and create an educated society capable of sustaining a knowledge-based economy. The desired outcome of these efforts was, and still is, to put all investments and government strategies under one entity concerned with coordinating, monitoring, evaluating, and developing all knowledge-related industries.
[35]
In 2008, we submitted the strategy to King Abdullah during a meeting at his Janadriyah farm. Dr Ahmed Mohammed Ali, Abdullah Zainil, Faisal bin Muaammar, Dr Mohammed Sabban and I represented the steering committee and we were joined by our two colleagues, Adil Sharif and Fahd Abu Al Nasr. After looking into the strategy, King Abdullah sai d: “If 300 of you believed in this, then we need 30,000 to work on and believe in it as well. And if we need to jump to get on board with progress, then I hope we can fly to do it faster. As for this strategy, be careful not to entrust it with a minister, who might just hold on to it.”
He added: “We are tired of theorizing. Now we want to see these ideas translated into action. I want the concepts in this stra tegy to be applied based on other countries’ practical experience.”
After hearing this, we worked for a whole year forming a group that would study various aspects of the strategy, which included education, training, investing, technology, and research and development. The groups set off to countries that excelled in these respective areas, starting with Finland, Ireland, and South Korea. They visited research centers there to learn about best practices in this regard. Later, King Abdullah ordered that the group be turned into the Bureau of Experts, which took the laudatory step of meeting with government agency representatives to consolidate efforts under the Knowledge Strategy umbrella.
Expanding from Oil
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