On November 14th, 2022, the management of Cihan University of Duhok was invited by the prime minister of KRG Mr. Masrour Barzani to the opening ceremony of the Kurdistan Innovation Institute in Hawler.
The event was attended by the president of the Cihan University – Duhok Dr. Zeravan Abdulmuhsen, the head of the Research Center Dr. Nawar Al-Saadi, Mr. Shakir Mahmood Abas and Research Center assistant Bahaaldeen Yasir.
The event started by introducing the project of KII, which is the first innovation institution in Iraq that supports innovation, researchers, and students to pursue their ideas and help develop them in the institution by providing resources from financial to even human resources. Focusing on various development areas such as Human beings, smart cities, housewares, sustainable energy, health, information technology, automation, transportation, fashion, and many more, KII aims to develop an economy that focuses on creating intellectual capital for the economy of KRG and to fight the continuous brain drain of its young population in the country, as well as to change its fragile economy that depends solely on a finite resource.
With a competent board of directors consisting of Mr. Masrour Barzani as the chairman, and Dr. Sarbaz Othman, Dr. Azad Najar, Mr. Baz Karim Al-Barzanji, and Mr. Saad T. Hassan as board members, the Project looks promising to build a more sustainable economy, whose most valuable resource is not oil but its people
The event consisted of many activities including two panels. The first panel was titled “The development of the relationship and communication between the education sector with the public and private sector in KRG” moderated by Mr. Zagros Fatah who was joined by the panelists Dr. Omed Sabah, Ms. Chapka N. Othman, and Dr. Dawood Atroushi. The panel discussion went into detail about the connection and influence between these three sectors. Pointing out the problems in this topic such as the private sector not being developed to the point that it affects the education sector by providing the students with an up-to-date curriculum that gives them skills they can benefit from in the modern-day age.
The second panel focused on individual innovators and entrepreneurs that talked about the importance of motivating figures & communities around innovators and creative individuals and the role of the education system in incubating and helping these individuals grow, the panel was moderated by Mr. Abdulsatar Madani who was joined by the panelists Mr. Yasir Bamarni, Mr. Nariman Anwar, and Dr. Dawn Jalil Sulaiman. Mr Yasir Bamarni talked about how he didn’t stick to their field of study and started their innovations in other fields that were required by the market. Which provides evidence of the disconnect between the education sector & the job market. Mr. Nariman Anwar who talked about influential figures in his life and how their support was a big factor for him to start making innovations that most people said were impossible.
In conclusion, KII is a very promising project consisting of the combination of many bodies of the government working together to create a knowledge-based economy through supporting research, business, and innovation development by providing all types of resources that in the past have been near impossible to attain especially for high-cost projects that have large scale benefits.
