The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) held a round table discussion on Thursday, November 20, 2025, in Dubai, as part of the 10th Knowledge Summit, titled “Building Knowledge Policies,” with the participation of the Director-General of the Organization, Dr. Salim AlMalik, Mr. Timur Suleymanov, Aide to the Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan, and a number of heads of sectors and directors at ICESCO, decision-makers, and experts.
The round table discussions, moderated by Dr. Sally Mabrouk, Head of the Strategy and Institutional Excellence Sector at ICESCO, and attended by a large number of summit participants, addressed ways to lay the foundations for policies that drive the transition to a knowledge-based economy and promote transparency and trust in an era of increasing misinformation.
In his speech, Dr. Salim AlMalik emphasized that ICESCO’s action is not limited to the transfer of knowledge but goes beyond that to its production and localization in Member States, with special priority given to young people as the main actors in building new knowledge societies. He stated that the Organization’s vision is based on linking knowledge to identity, values, and ethics, allowing for the formulation of policies that take into account cultural specificities and harness the opportunities offered by digital transformation and artificial intelligence.
In his speech on the cultural dimension of knowledge policies, Dr. Mohamed Zinelabidine, Head of ICESCO’s Culture Sector, affirmed that building knowledge societies requires a real development of cultural development policies in the fields of education, training, and scientific research.
In his turn, Osama Heikal, Head of the Media and Communication Sector at the Organization, addressed the role of the media as a guardian of knowledge in an era of information flow and the rise of fake news, stressing the need to build reliable content and use digital media as a tool for policy-making and enhancing information security, and fostering critical thinking among the younger generations to protect them from misleading and fake news.
On the subject of multilingual content, Dr. Ahmed Al-Banyan, Director of the Translation and Publishing Center at ICESCO, presented an integrated vision for designing open knowledge environments through digital translation and publishing policies that promote local knowledge production and expand access to scientific and cultural content in Member States.
The Head of the Partnerships and International Cooperation Sector at ICESCO, Anar Karimov, tackled the importance of cross-border partnerships, noting that international and South-South cooperation should shift from channels of funding to platforms for the exchange of experiences and the production and localization of knowledge.
Dr. Salim Al Habsi, Director of the General Secretariat of National Commissions and Conferences at the Organization, reviewed the role of national commissions in transitioning from traditional coordination functions to excellence centers of knowledge by unifying statistical and knowledge efforts.
During the round table, Mr. Timur Suleymanov, Aide to the Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan, presented a scientific paper in which he talked about the need for young people to move from consuming knowledge to producing it, through flexible education systems, innovation incubators, and the promotion of entrepreneurship in the field of knowledge.
In conclusion, the ICESCO delegation participating in the Knowledge Summit affirmed that the Organization will endeavor to translate the conclusions of this discussion into practical recommendations to be submitted to Member States, thereby contributing to the development of a roadmap for knowledge policies in the Islamic world during the coming period.
