São Paulo – The World Economic Forum, an organisation headquartered in Davos, Switzerland, should promote, from June 4 to 6, in Istanbul, Turkey, its edition for the Middle East, North Africa and Eurasia. The theme of the conference will be “Bridging Regions in Transformation”.
According to information disclosed by the organizers, some 1,000 participants are expected, including government representatives, companies, universities and the civil society. The programme was established based on three main themes: growth and employment, technology and social transformation and governance.
In the panels, according to the Forum, there should be talks about geopolitics after the Arab Spring; the future of the Euro Zone; austerity policies; employment, growth and entrepreneurship; the future of Syria; the priorities of the G20 (the group of main developed and emerging economies) for Russia; obstacles for economic diversification; integration of the civil society in political and economic reforms; confidence between the public and private sectors and the part of Turkey in the region.
“Our region currently faces a series of problems, but also enormous opportunities for creation of a more stable, prosperous and safe future for our people,” said Egemen Bağış, the Turkish minister for European Union Matters, according to a press statement by the Forum. “We have a single opportunity in some countries in the Middle East and North Africa, where our parliaments are gaining strength from a majority that will really strengthen their civil societies,” added the director of the organisation for the Middle East and North Africa, Miroslav Dusek.
The Forum’s director for Europe, Stephen Kinnock, pointed out that the conference may provide incentives to the creation of new bridges between the European nations and their neighbouring countries. “The Euro Zone crisis goes much beyond the frontiers of the region: it is currently the greatest threat to the global economy,” he said, according to a press statement by the organisation.
The Forum informs that it should receive heads of state and government of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, the Ukraine, the Palestinian National Authority (ANP) and the Iraqi Kurdistan. The event will be opened by Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. One of the co-presidents of the conference should be the Brazilian Frederico Curado, the president of Embraer.
*Translated by Mark Ament
