HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th

[M104-01] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:01 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

[M104-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:04 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I'm not here to make another speech, because I have Daniel promised to grill me like hell, but I felt it's very important that as a host as the chairman of KAPSARC, that it's my duty to welcome everybody here, with a resonating self-assured statement that I do welcome you in Saudi Arabia; the Young Saudi Arabia, the Ambitious Saudi Arabia, the Determined Saudi Arabia, and the Courageous Saudi Arabia, but more important the More Emancipated Saudi Arabia.

[M104-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:02 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I wanted to share with you a little story of my affiliation with the International Association of Energy Economies. I'm running neck to neck with some of our friends here. I still proclaim that I was the first Saudi to become a member of the association.

[M104-05] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:36 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Unfortunately, I have no meaningful way to validate that or verify that, I even asked our friends from the association to help me out, but in that days which I think it was 1986, end of 85, early 86, I became a member, but then I lost track of my membership; so I also went to use this occasion if I could call it to renew my vows and appeal in a repenting way to the association with the full desire of making myself, for the second time, a member of the association albeit late 36 years ago.

[M104-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:37 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But, let me tell you why we are here also in this building, in this vicinity, in this institution. KAPSARC was a live dream for me. When I graduated from university, did my MBA, I had a small dream of creating a small energy research unit at KFUPM Research Institute. Then, we had a gracious director of the University who allowed me to put together that unit, which I have started building up late 85, 86 in early part of 87.

[M104-07] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:38 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

And here I am, I want to share with you my very first story of failure. I did fail miserably and I bequeathed that unit to another friend of mine, which he continued a self-assured movement of failure, and the reason for the failure is so simple; when you don't have the will of the institution, and you don't have the enablers to build these institutions, you tend to fail and fail miserable; that's why when the opportunity came in 2006, I took an advocacy at that time being an assistant minister of energy of petroleum and minerals at that time, advocating that we have to build this institution, because we're running out of talent as the ministry.

[M104-08] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:50 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We are running out of capable people, and we need the think tank, but we don't need "don't think and tank". We needed the think tank, the incubator of talents, and for that to happen, you need the capable institution and the enabled institution. So, in the journey of two years of trying and trying and trying again and that's why people sometimes want to understand the type of stamina I have, it's these experiences of failure, arising again from the ashes, because I have a moto which I share with my new young colleagues, it's a very simple one: don't give in, don't give up.

[M104-09] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:54 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

And because of that I managed to pull the rabbit and create the bylaws of KAPSARC, which is second to none at that time, and more important and the biggest enabler at that time and still is the endowment, so in my judgment and I remember to be corrected, I would claim that KAPSARC is the most enabled think tank in Planet Earth. It has the facilities, it has the accommodations, it has the endowment, and it has the talents and it has the value bylaws that allow it to recruit every talented person in Planet Earth.

[M104-11] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:07:57 · HRH Energy Minister's Speech at IAEE 44th · 2023-02-04 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

But I also owe it to the people of KAPSARC who put the time and efforts, helping our Saudi Association to gather in this building, this gathering, which I think it has just registered a record of attendance, where we want to have KAPSARC to be, KAPSARC will be the incubator of events like this, and many more to come in the future. I assure you that with the resetting we had done to KAPSARC over the last three years which is really literally putting it back to where it should have been before, that resetting program was done by the community, within KAPSARC by them, for them, on a bottom-up approach which makes me even more proud of the talented people that are present in KAPSARC. What we want to do is make sure that we make our story to the public and for other who are listening to me and we'll be listening over the next two, three, four days. Make a choice and join KAPSARC, it will be a place of great and full excitement. Thank you.