Dubai Ruler Gives $10-Billion to Scholarships, Research

The man credited with transforming the Persian Gulf city of Dubai into a mecca of tourism, luxury resorts, and skyscrapers has given $10-billion to start a foundation that will provide scholarships and support research in the Middle East, reports the Associated Press.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and prime minister of United Arab Emirates, called it “the ultimate form of negligence” to observe the status of the region’s population and not act to improve the situation. He said 18 percent of people younger than 15 in the Middle East are illiterate and that the Arab world spends just a fraction of its gross domestic product on scientific research, the news agency reports.

“It is not enough to look over the development indicators each year and to exclaim in surprise at the region’s situation and the fact that it ranks among the lowest positions at the international level,” he told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, in the United Arab Emirates, is expected to begin awarding scholarships in 2008.

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