Dubai ruler sets up $10 bn Arab education fund

Dead Sea (Jordan), May 19: Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum launched today a 10-billion dollar fund to promote human development and education in the Arab world.

He said the fund will provide grants to students, researchers, academics and experts to write, research and help translate books into Arabic.

A UNESCO report published in 2002, said that 40 percent of adults in the Arab region were illiterate, and that projections show that if current efforts to eliminate it continue, 28 percent of the region's population will still be illiterate in 2015.

Sheikh Mohammed, who was speaking at an international economic conference in Jordan, said he is investing money in education and ''the development of knowledge'' in the region to eliminate illiteracy and to create an educated generation in an attempt to curb high unemployment rates.

''Our region needs at this moment 15 million job opportunities, and our Arab world will need in the next 20 years between 74 to 85 million job opportunities,'' he said.

''We need to develop the infrastructure so we can create jobs.'' UNESCO said in its report the high illiteracy rate was hindering economic and social development.

Reuters>