WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha, who is also chairman of the Board of Directors of the Research, Development and Innovation Development Authority met in Washington, with the US National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan.

The meeting came during the Saudi minister's ongoing visit to the US. He discussed with the NFS's director the partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States, in addition to empowering innovative scientists and researchers in priority fields,

Eng. Al-Sawah also met with Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Monica M. Bertagnolli, and discussed research projects and innovative solutions in the health field.

The two sides also discussed enhancing innovations to serve humanity by finding solutions to pressing global health challenges in line with the national priorities for research, development and innovation announced by Saudi Arabia.

The series of meetings comes at a time when the Kingdom is moving strongly to invest in capacity building, research and innovation capabilities leading to the transformation into an innovation-based economy.