Jordan ... Spending more on coffee than on scientific research???

Al - Anbat - Saba - Al - Sukkar

Translated by - Neveen - Al - Jarrah 

The importance of scientific research lies in the country seeking progress and development. It is the basis for the structure of the economy based on knowledge and innovation, in addition to achieving sustainable development and reaching a society that thinks about future challenges. Therefore, developed countries have raised for several decades the percentage of what they spend on research and development from the public and private sectors to their gross domestic product, while the trend has become for developing countries. In the Arab region, especially in the Kingdom, in almost non-existent spending for scientific research and its researchers.

The economist, Hossam Ayesh, commented that scientific research and spending on it, patents, and others; It needs care and support, and therefore spending on scientific research in the country is not a decision that is taken, but rather a result that is sought for, explaining that there is a problem in supporting the scientific research sector in the Kingdom and the Arab region, and similar countries and its existence for reasons related to showing a positive side in the expenditures, while Scientific research in these countries did not lead to the desired results with regard to its consequences, for many reasons, most notably; Lack of spending on scientific research, or that the scientific level and knowledge does not meet the requirements of scientific research of high quality and different results, or researchers lack experience and knowledge to conduct these researches.

He continued, that the repetition and imitation of research carried out by developed countries without adding anything new weakens this sector, while the concerned institutions are required to make a budget to carry out scientific research; It does this to reduce taxes on it and not out of complete conviction to allocate a budget for scientific research, stressing that scientific research; It is part of the continuous training on innovation, invention, and thinking about a scientific sequence, its methodologies, methods, and standards upon which it is based, indicating that the production of scientific content in Arab countries is less than three-quarters of the production of scientific content in a neighboring country.

And he called for conducting scientific research on a personal level, as an agricultural country and thinking about doing research to develop the sector, while the country has a scarcity of water, so it should think about scientific research to save water and develop its use techniques, and work on industries that lead to more benefit than what is available in the country, adding That the Kingdom can work on research and capabilities to face climate change, in addition to working on tourism destinations, developing tourism activity, and preserving tourist environments and places, while the country needs the results of scientific research to reduce high costs in the Kingdom and find alternatives at a lower cost and high quality, which is the challenge for prosperity Jordanian economy.

He added that "what is spent on tea and coffee in the Kingdom and the Arab region is much more than what is spent on scientific research," based on this statement by a report of the Scientific Research Support Fund in previous years, stating that about 42 million dinars were spent during the last ten years on scientific research, indicating This amount does not establish a scientific environment and real scientific activity, while some countries spend on scientific research as a percentage of the gross domestic product, which may exceed 4.5% or more, while the Arab region does not exceed 1% as a maximum, and in countries such as Jordan it ranges around 0.3 %,.

He stressed the importance of preparing and developing researchers in the scientific research sector, giving an example of Korea spending 4% of the gross domestic product on the sector, amounting to about $70 billion, and about 6820 researchers and more in previous years, i.e. one scientific researcher for every million citizens, while Harvard University spends More than a billion dollars on scientific research, indicating that there are countries similar to Jordan that spend 240 million dollars that may not be sufficient except for the initial requirements of scientific research.

He called for the establishment of a unified center and forum for public and private Jordanian universities for scientific research so that minds gather, each according to his specialization, to develop scientific research in all economic sectors, especially since spending on the sector is low, but sometimes ideas help to carry out research whose products can be used directly in the market, calling To develop ideas that work to support scientific research as part of present and future investment, explaining that the country's economy is still developing and therefore needs sustainable financing for real scientific research away from spending on initial requirements such as primary and marginal training operations, and on conferences and seminars that have no benefit for this. Research and spending.

And that investment in scientific research; It is a latent revolution that must be spent on it in accordance with the basic needs of individuals, societies and all economic sectors, calling for work to amend the national curricula to include the empowerment of students in scientific research, and to motivate them through competitions at the level of research in cooperation with universities and the private sector, and to reward research that is beneficial For the Kingdom, explaining that the problem of spending on scientific research is old and its solution comes by forcing sectors and institutions to make scientific research part of their internal system, and rewarding institutions that result in research whose application lies directly in the various requirements of society.

It is worth noting that a summary of policies under the title "Protection of Property Rights: The Gateway to Promoting Creativity and Innovation" showed that Jordan is one of the countries that spend the least on research and development, according to the Jordan Strategy Forum.