Egyptian Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said met with New Development Bank (NDB) President Dilma Rousseff on the sidelines of the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong to discuss enhancing partnerships, according to a statement on Thursday 25/1/2024.
During the meeting, El-Said emphasized Egypt’s desire to build an effective collaboration that leverages the capabilities of BRICS nations. She expressed optimism about cooperation potential after her first discussion with Rousseff.
El-Said also noted that Egypt has seen a 33 percent surge in imports and a 75 percent jump in exports to BRICS countries since 2020.
She explained that Egypt owns 2.27 percent of the NDB’s capital through 11,960 joint shares worth $1.19 billion.
Furthermore, El-Said highlighted Egypt’s focus on directing public investments toward needier communities to improve living standards and public services access.
Egypt’s membership in the BRICS bloc officially came into effect in a landmark move this January, aligning
itself with five other new members, heralding a wave of anticipated benefits for the country.
In March 2023, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi approved an agreement establishing the NDB of the BRICS bloc (whose founding members are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and allowing Egypt to join the bank.
The BRICS countries established the NDB in 2014.
NDB member states include Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Russia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay.
Source: State Information Service Egypt
ABU DHABI: The inaugural Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) Entrepreneurship Courses concluded with 12 AI-based startup business plans presented at an on-campus event in Masdar City.
Twenty-two students gained the entrepreneurial skills, tools, and networks needed to commercialise their AI solutions in the UAE, and three startups were fast-tracked for financial grants from MBZUAI.
Jointly launched by MBZUAI’s Incubation and Entrepreneurship Centre (MIEC) and startAD, the Abu Dhabi-based startup accelerator powered by Tamkeen and anchored at NYU Abu Dhabi, the programme aims to boost the AI startup ecosystem in Abu Dhabi.
The top three AI-assisted technologies and applications are Audiomatic, which provides automatic and emotionally intelligent audio production for video content, including customised scores, sound effects, and narrations; Limb, an application providing accessible physiotherapy information such as exercise correction and pain management features; and Momzo, a co
mplete AI assistant for women’s maternity to motherhood powered by generative AI.
‘These are the first AI-focused entrepreneurship courses at the university and in the UAE and come on the eve of an expected AI startup boom led by generative AI,’ MBZUAI’s Vice President of Public Affairs and Alumni Relations Sultan Al Hajji said.
He added, ‘The entrepreneurship courses actively encourage students to take advantage of the favourable entrepreneurial environment in Abu Dhabi and ignite the potential to transform their research and engineering know-how into a business. The startup pitches highlight specific-industry and application-use cases and have the potential to make a significant impact on society with their bold, sophisticated, and innovative concepts.’
Managing Director of startAD Ramesh Jagannathan said, ‘The MBZUAI IEC programme immersed AI innovators in the exciting world of innovation and entrepreneurship, where they learned to apply business literacy heuristics to their ideas. According to an Accen
ture Report, AI will add $182 billion in annual gross value to the UAE’s economy by 2035. These startup projects demonstrate high potential and are poised to strengthen the UAE’s knowledge economy.’
The 22 graduates represent more than ten nationalities, with 41% being women. All participants graduated from the intensive five-week entrepreneurship courses, which included eight workshops and three community engagement events covering topics such as idea generation, market discovery, prototyping, and pitching.
The 12 startup business plans covered a variety of verticals, including AI safety, AI for health, AI for social good, and more.
The top three pitches were named by a panel of expert judges, including Jean-Luc Scherer, business incubation expert and advisor at Sandooq Al Watan; Mariam Al Badr, director of outreach at Khalifa Fund; Dr. Ramzi Ben Ouaghrem, director of research development and engagement at MBZUAI; Michael Huang, acting director of strategy and IEQA at MBZUAI; and Selim Tira, investment re
presentative at Shorooq Partners.
Source: Emirates News Agency