On Thursday, April 13, 2023, the minister of higher education and scientific research, Mr. Kamel Baddari and the minister of knowledge economy, startups and micro-enterprises Mr. Yacine El-Mahdi Oualid, inaugurated a Study Day on drones, entitled (applications and prospects of drones), attended by high ranked officials from the ministry of national defence, the ministry of post and telecommunication and ministry of agriculture and rural development, in addition to a number of public institutions directors.
This event comes in the context of the dynamic technological change in the field of drones uses and applications, as being a part of different surveillance activities, besides instant and precised detection.
The minister of knowledge economy, startups and micro-enterprises Mr. Yacine El-Mahdi Oualid, affirmed that Algeria has a significant potential to develop models of drones for various sectors, such as, agriculture and natural disasters management, which qualifies her to shift from research stage towards production and marketing.
The Study Day on drones aims to study the prospects and tangible projects available for startups and business owners, in addition to scientific, practical and economic mastering of technology. As it offers opportunities to private and public institutions and economic operators, and introduce them to the capacities provided by these technology technics, which aim to suggest solutions to their challenges and improve their performance.
Mr. Baddari revealed that the sector of higher education will start the preparation of a term-sheet for the establishment of a higher school for autonomous systems which will include drones technology. The minister expressed admiration for the impressive innovations developed by students and researchers in this regard, affirming that his ministry and the ministry of knowledge economy, startups and micro-enterprises will be working on the establishment of economic enterprises in this field, in partnership between research centres in autonomous systems and financial centres, which will create manufactured and marketable prototypes.
The minister of knowledge economy, startups and micro-enterprises, for his part, stated that Algeria has great potential in the field of drones’ technology, adding that prototypes of drones had been developed by many innovative students and startups. Noting that the sector of drones has a promising future in various fields of life, including agriculture, natural disasters management, mines and national defence, and other fields, which needs more efforts and attention by public authorities in order to shift from research and development towards production and marketing.
Furthermore, Mr. Oualid stated that this Study Day aims to unveil the capacities and the skills of students, and help them to establish their projects whether through material assistance or introducing them to the structures of the sector. Reminding that, many regulatory texts relating to the sector of drones have been issued in recent years. On the same occasion, a number of drones prototypes which had been developed by Algerian students and startups, were portrayed during this event.