Sharjah 24 – WAM: Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, and Director General, Expo 2020 Dubai, on Wednesday, received Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist, and the world’s fourth-richest man at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Bill Gates’ visit is significant, as Expo 2020 Dubai and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined hands to support grassroots innovators with the ambition and potential to improve the lives of people across a variety of complex, fragile or marginalised humanitarian settings.
Accompanied by Reem Al Hashemy, Bill Gates toured the key projects of Expo Live, the global innovation and partnership programme that supports innovators who develop extraordinary low-cost solutions.
During the tour, Gates was briefed on the ‘Ideabatic’, a low-cost innovation developed by Kitty Liao of the UK, keeping vaccines and life-saving medicines fresh during long journeys to remote rural areas.
He was also impressed by 'Desert Control', a new technology developed by Atle Idland of Norway, to help create an agricultural revolution for arid regions. The invention uses Liquid NonoClay (LNC), a technology that converts poor soil into fertile land. It works more quickly and uses less water than conventional agricultural methods.
After that, Gates toured the Sustainability Pavilion, which highlights technologies that consume zero energy. Speaking to Expo TV, Gates urged the world to speed up the implementation of its commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, with the deadline just eight years away.
He also said that the world was going through a difficult stage in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the success achieved, and called for more efforts for a fair distribution of vaccines.
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