Jordan Times
Thursday, May 5, 2005
Nobel laureates to convene in Petra
AMMAN (Petra) — The ancient city of Petra will
play host to some of the world's greatest thinkers this month who will debate
some of the key issues facing mankind in the 21st century.
The gathering of Nobel laureates, at the personal invitation of His Majesty King
Abdullah, will take place from May 18-19 and will include Nobel winners for
chemistry, economics, literature, medicine, peace, physics and physiology.
The conference seeks to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas on how to deal
with contemporary social, economic and political challenges.
The King is expected to inaugurate the meeting with an address calling for
concerted efforts on the part of all nations to help spread the concepts of
tolerance, peace, justice, freedom and peaceful coexistence among all nations.
Some of the items up for discussion at the gathering include: World peace, the
promotion of tolerance, security, stability, economic and human development,
culture and the media.
The King has invited the scientists and scholars to hold a brainstorming session
focusing on political and economic questions in order to use their creative
talents to form a consensus on how to tackle major issues, according to Bassem
Awadallah, minister of finance and vice chairman of the King Abdullah Fund for
Development, which is sponsoring the conference.
The Petra conference precedes the 3rd World Economic Forum which will begin at
the Dead Sea on May 20.