São Palo – The World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa will be held this weekend (6-7) at the Dead Sea (photo) in Jordan. The theme will be “Building New Platforms of Cooperation.”
Under this theme, the debates will focus on four imperatives: Shaping a new economic and social model for the region; environmental stewardship in the Arab world; finding common ground in a multiconceptual world; and the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Arab world.
More than 1,000 participants are expected including government, business and civil society leaders from over 50 countries, according to the organizers.
“At this meeting, we will hold several strategic dialogues, with particular attention on the relationship between the public, private and civic sectors, the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on skills and jobs, and new initiatives to help resolve long-standing conflicts,” said Mirek Dusek, deputy head of Centre for Geopolitical and Regional Affairs and member of the Executive Committee at the Forum, according to the organization release.
The forum will bring representatives from 100 Arab start-ups aiming to further integrate entrepreneurs into a regional dialogue on pressing challenges. They include companies from different sectors such as the transportation app start-up Careem, which has been recently bought by Uber for USD 3.1 billion, and considered the region’s first “unicorn,” which is how new companies with a current valuation of US$1 billion or more are called; Coded (Kuwait), of technology; Proximie (Lebanon), a company of medical technology; and Wahed, a halal investment platform.
Among the public figures expected to take part are United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres; Palestine president Mahmoud Abbas; Saudi minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Falih; UAE minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Al Olama; Oman’s minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah; Bahrain’s minister of Foreign Affairs Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa; Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari; Armenian president Armen Sarkissian; Turkey first lady Emine Erdoğan; Lebanese deputy prime minister Ghassan Hasbani; Afghanistan chief executive Abdullah Abdullah,
The co-chairs of this year’s meeting include Bahrain Economic Development Board chief executive Khalid Al Rumaihi; UAE minister of Climate Change and Environment Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi; Egyptian minister of Tourism Rania A. Al-Mashat; Majid Al Futtaim Holding chief executive officer Alain Bejjani; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development president Sumantra Chakrabarti; King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) president Tony F. Chan, from Saudi Arabia; Netherlands minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Kaag; and Wafa Ben-Hassine, from the American NGO of digital inclusion Access Now.
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Translated by Guilherme Miranda
