Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi Arabia on Science and Technology Cooperation

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release December 2, 2008
Media Note

Assistant Secretary McMurray Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi Arabia on Science and Technology Cooperation

Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment, and Science Claudia A. McMurray today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on science and technology (S&T) cooperation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during a ceremony held in Riyadh. Representing Saudi Arabia, His Highness, Prince Torki bin Saud, Vice President of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), signed on behalf of KACST President Mohammed Al-Suwaiyel.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have long had a low-key relationship in science and technology that involves cooperation between numerous U.S. technical agencies, academic institutions, and private business. The new MOU will formalize this decades-long relationship between the two countries.

This important agreement will permit greater agency-to-agency cooperation across the range of scientific and technological fields. It will enable enhanced cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the United States in priority areas including S&T entrepreneurship, materials sciences, water purification, education methods, plant genomics, and other advances in agriculture, health, and biotechnology. It will also facilitate mutual efforts to develop national and regional capacities in monitoring and protecting the marine environment, studying and identifying ways to mitigate negative aspects of climate change, and learning how to better conserve energy resources.

Saudi government S&T infrastructure is centered at KACST, which performs policy and management functions, as well as resource allocations for research and development through its subsidiary institutes. The success of KACST leadership in advancing S&T activities in the country and region is evident in the significant decision by the Kingdom to implement a five-year, $30 billion program to upgrade its science and technology infrastructure.

The MOU joint agreement will benefit the United States by giving U.S. scientists greater access to new research opportunities, U.S. academic institutions the chance to form new partnerships with centers of learning in the Middle East, and the U.S. S&T business community new ways to be more globally competitive. The United States looks forward to working with Saudi Arabia in building a closer relationship in science and technology cooperation as its ambitious five-year plan moves forward.