The government is currently setting up telemedicine Centres as a way out of the difficulties Cameroonians encounter in receiving proper health care.
Israel is rich in high technology. In fact, it is known worldwide for its talented hi-tech industry. Many experts and specialists this reporter contacted in Israel were unanimous that the success in the high-tech field is mainly due to the influences of the Israeli Defence Forces, the country’s military industries, its military intelligence units, its research institutes as well as its universities that welcome students from across the globe.
Telling Statistics
Records show that Motorola’s commercial cell phone was developed in Israel, Israel was Intel’s first development centre outside the US, Microsoft has one of its three strategic development centres outside the US in Israel and Checkpoint, the world’s leader in internet security and firewalls, is an Israeli company. The list is long. These and many more companies are based in the country’s industrial town, Haifa, as well as other towns like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The country’s entrepreneurship, creativity, hunger for innovation and love for change seems to be a driving force. Using technological innovation as a priority and establishing technological partnerships with foreign industrialists for optimum results in technological know-how as well as assimilating all technology and know-how without becoming victims of the “not invented here” syndrome have driven the country to the apex today. The country is also bracing up to hit the world market with electrically-driven cars. According to officials of the “Better Place Company” in Tel Aviv, electric cars have several potential benefits as compared to conventional combustion automobiles. They said it significantly reduces urban air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions as well as lessens dependence on foreign oil.
Water, Renewable Energy & Environmental Control
The Israeli water market, thanks to several years of experience in managing scarce water resources, is highly developed. Over 60 per cent of the country’s total land surface is covered by desert and due to the continuous water needs supported by entrepreneurial culture; Israel has become a water solution hub and is expanding its activity to alternative energy and environmental solutions too. The country is currently marketing its creativity in a three-day (November 15 – 17) 6th international exhibition and third international conference on water technologies, renewable energy and environmental control in Tel Aviv. The technological display is a rare moment for the world to learn from Israel’s success story and share experiences with them. Hundreds of companies have answered present and are telling visitors what they did to get to the apex. Cameroon was supposed to be part of the exhibition.
The Tel Aviv event is similar to the Excellence Days for Scientific Research and Innovation in Cameroon, (JERSIC) which will be in its third edition from 30 November to 2 December in Yaounde. Unlike JERSIC whose fruits are still to be quit palpable in the country, Israel is living thanks to its researchers. With a solar water heating system installed in every household, four per cent of the country’s annual energy consumption is from solar system. This is just one out of hundreds, if not thousands, of visible examples. That the country today counts over ten researchers who have bagged the coveted Nobel Prizes lends credence to its ingenuity. Networking is not prohibited and from the look of things, Israeli researchers, coupled with the country’s open-door policy, is ready to share their know-how to move the world forward. Research, it is said, is the mother of invention and partnering with world-class researchers and institutes could just be another way of transforming President Paul Biya’s vision of making Cameroon an emerging nation by 2035 a concrete reality.
