JEDDAH, 29 November 2004 — Mohammed Al-Gergawi, chief executive officer of Dubai Holding, will deliver the opening address at the “Leaders in Dubai” conference being held in Dubai today and tomorrow, under the patronage of General Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al-Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and United Arab Emirates defense minister.
Al-Gergawi in his capacity as chairman of the Young Arab Leaders (YAL) executive committee and 40 other YAL together with leaders from the world over will attend the event, which is expected to attract more than 2,500 delegates.
Al-Gergawi said: “Young Arab Leaders has aligned itself with this event as it also promotes the development of leadership. We share the common strategy of promoting effective leadership in forthcoming generations.
“We at Young Arab Leaders aim to provide young leaders across all sectors with the opportunity to network and co-operate across Arab borders. Our mission is to identify, promote and prepare for a better future as the leaders of tomorrow.”
Dubai is also set to host another Arab Strategy Forum, which will be held from Dec. 13-15 under the theme “The Arab World in 2020.”
The main objective of the Arab Strategy Forum is to encourage open and frank dialogue between political leaders, experts, and academics from both within and outside the region.
Al-Gergawi, also chairman of the Arab Strategy Forum Organizing Committee, said that “The Arab world is currently facing many political, economic, social and security challenges. It is obvious that many suggested solutions are based on the reactions in the short term not on long-term strategies. This, in turn, can worsen the situation and add more complications. We should effectively use the time we have, to plan and implement good strategies. In this regard, the forum’s session will highlight the strategic challenges and lay out the best options for the countries in the region to face those challenges.”
He added that this is a very rough time for the Arab world and felt that the Arab people and governments are aware of various challenges and are willing to make the necessary changes.
“The forum will help us to come up with effective solutions for the challenges being faced in the Arab world, hence, giving the decision-makers — whether government or private or public sector — a better and clearer picture of the situation in the Arab world.”
The Arab Strategy Forum aims to map out a blueprint for what the Arab world would look like in the year 2020. Opinion-influencers and decision-makers from all over the world will join efforts to analyze the past and current situation of the Arab world and the obstacles it faces in its march into the future. The forum will encourage coalitions and mutually beneficial blocs within the region and with the rest of the world.
Al-Gergawi said that the criteria for choosing the forum’s topics tended to be topics that tackled the most current topics and issues in the Arab world, “especially controversial ones.”
He also said that the organizing committee makes sure to create a think tank of ministers, pubic authorities, academics, experts, and decision makers from private and public sectors from all over the world, which meets at Arab Strategy Forum to tackle the various topics facing our people, our communities and the region.
“We expect approximately 5,100 prominent participants like government officials from the GCC and the Arab region and representatives from both private and public sectors at Arab Strategy Forum,” he said.
The prominence of the organizing partners reflects the importance of the event. Eight pre-eminent local and international organizations have come forward to offer their support for this year’s Arab Strategy Forum. The premiere annual event has six organizing partners and two media partners. They are Emirates National Oil Company Limited (ENOC), Abraaj Capital, PriceWaterhouseCooper, DaimlerChrysler Middle East, National Bank of Dubai and Gulf News, in addition to our media partners Asharq Al-Awsat and CNN.
