TRANSFORMING COUNTRIES ONE BY ONE - SUSTAINABLE LIECHTENSTEIN

17 AUGUST 2017 - RF

“This is only the beginning”

We’ve been in touch with many impactful Organisations in the last year. And we’ve interlinked three initiatives to join THE HUS.institute in empowering the Principality of Liechtenstein´s transformation. Together with Dianne Dain of the United Nations Technology Innovation Lab, Dawda Jobarteh of SOLVE at MIT, and Paul Lee representing the MIT initiative “CityScape”, we met with Adrian Hasler, the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein. Up for discussion was how THE HUS.institute and its platform partners could create a unique opportunity for Liechtenstein.

Inspiring the United Nations

“When I met Rudi almost one year ago at NASA in the US, he said to me: ‘We could make Liechtenstein the first country to reach all the Sustainable Development Goals!’ And I think Rudi didn’t know at that time, but that was the starting point for the United Nations Technology Innovation Labs to get in touch with all UN member states, asking if they want to set up a Laboratory with us”, Dianne, Head of Partnerships for the Office of Information and Communication Technologies at the United Nations NYC, recalled with a smile. Already there are Labs in Finland, India, Malaysia, and Egypt and there are more to come. We had already met Dianne and her team for an initial workshop at the University of Liechtenstein in January. Isn’t it incredible to hear that we’ve been part in inspiring the United Nations! Dianne pointed out that if Liechtenstein is up for it, the UN would love to set up a Lab in the Principality as “it truly is a unique place”. For more information on the United Nations Technology Innovation labs please visit its website.

As Paul Lee, one of the leading data scientists in the US, gave his presentation on the MIT “CityScope”. with its astonishing visualisations of futuristic scenarios, we could see the prime minister smiling in disbelief. We saw on video the open-source platform simulating the impact of urban design and technology interventions in real time to enable the wise planning of more sustainable, entrepreneurial, high-performance urban structures. Paul pointed out that with the MIT City Sciences tools, countries can avoid errors before they even occur and simply build better cities and infrastructures for the future.

We then had the pleasure of hearing about another initiative out of the MIT kitchen: Dawda Jobarteh, Managing Director of SOLVE at MIT, told us about its annual search for solutions to global challenges around the four pillars of learning, health, sustainability, and economic prosperity.

In the afternoon, after meeting the Prime Minister, our team and guests had another workshop with Dawda from MIT Solve and then the opportunity to meet the head of the Liechtenstein banking association Simon Tribelhorn.
He expressed his support for our activities as they continue efforts that the Liechtenstein finance industry has been focused upon since 2009.

 

Within the next 100 days, we will provide the Government and the citizens of Liechtenstein with the necessary information for making concrete decisions in favour of a transformation into a holistically sustainable country. Stay tuned.