Malta hosts New Thinking centre

Lateral thinker Edward De Bono has opened the World Centre for New Thinking, located at Villa Bighi, in Kalkara and which will also have two representative offices in Belgium and London.

The World Centre for New Thinking was created to act as a platform for new ideas. As such it aims to make visible new ideas from any source. The centre will organise round table discussions to generate ideas on designated issues and will offer training in formal creative methods as well as creative facilitation as requested. Above all, the centre will emphasise the power of possibilities and the importance of new ideas.

Education, Youth and Employment Minister Louis Galea, who delivered the inaugural speech, said the government was supporting the initiative of the De Bono Foundation as it felt that the centre could be Malta's contribution to the European Union and the world.

Dr Galea said Malta might never be a military or economic power but it could definitely develop an "idea power" and to cultivate this we needed to invest in developing and nurturing thinking skills at all levels.

The World Centre for New Thinking is an initiative of Prof. De Bono who is regarded as the world leader in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking in schools. His work is in use by thousands of schools and hundreds of businesses worldwide. From an understanding of the nature of the brain as a self-organising neural network he designed the formal creative tools of lateral thinking.

The centre has place for 50 foundation members who will have access to all meetings and other privileges. Membership is open to nations, corporations or other organisations.