Twenty heads of state and government, more than 250 ministers, and about 10,000 businessmen, including Elon Musk, government officials, thought leaders, and global experts, will meet at the World Government Summit (WGS), which officially begins Monday in Dubai.
The World Government Summit is a global platform dedicated to shaping the future of governments around the world. Each year, the Summit sets the agenda of the next generation of governments and examines everything related to people’s lives, and the ability of each country’s government to serve its people, and provide what comforts and facilitates their lives.
The focus is on how innovation and technology can be harnessed to solve the global challenges facing humanity.
This year’s summit, which is being held at a time when the global economy is going through violent bumps, and while governments are facing many challenges, comes under the slogan “Foreseeing future governments” after becoming for ten years a platform for creative ideas and turning them into reality, such as the Museum of the Future, which began as an idea at the summit in 2014.
Read: WGS2022: A new phase towards strategic global economic agendas
The summit annually celebrates winners from around the world in exceptional awards such as the World’s Best Minister Award, the Global University Challenge Award, the Creative Government Innovation Award, the Global Award for Best Government Applications, and the Global Government Excellence Award.
In more than 220 sessions, speakers will address the features of government experiences in their countries, and the prospects for cooperation between governments of the world, to reach a common vision that contributes to building a better future for countries and peoples.
The keynote themes and sessions are broadly titled, including sustainable development challenges, climate issues, global financial policies, the outlook for the international economy, and the future of healthcare.
A number of heads of state and heads of government will participate in the main sessions of the World Government Summit 2023, most notably Senegalese President Macky Sall and the Chairperson of the African Union, in a session entitled “Africa… The Next Global Economic Engine”, on the prospects for investment in Africa, which is considered a land of promising opportunities.
In a keynote session entitled “The Era of Climate Change… The President of the Republic of Seychelles, Waffle Ramkalawan, reviews the challenges facing his country in light of climate change, as one of the island countries that fear sea level rise the most.
In a keynote speech at the summit, Sheikh Ahmed Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Prime Minister of Kuwait, reviewed the prospects for cooperation between world governments to achieve development goals.
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Tunisia, Najla Boden Ramadan, will participate in a number of sessions, including a session entitled “Leading Positive Change… Women’s Leadership in Government” on the second day of the summit, in which she talks about the requirements of preparing a new generation of women leaders for future government work
The President of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, Masrour Barzani, will also participate in a keynote session on the first day of the summit, and another within the World Data Forum, entitled “How powerful is data in decision-making?”, where he talks about how the data revolution has become the lifeblood of decision-making.
Musk at the summit again
On the third day of the summit, in a panel discussion, and for the second time between the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the World Government Summit, Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, and the CEO of Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla, Elon Musk, shed light on many of the pivotal issues that concern the world.
Musk returns to the top after 6 years, continuing the rich dialogue he began in 2017 on innovation and future leadership with a session titled “A Conversation with Elon Musk 2.0.”
Klaus Schwab, Founder and President of the World Economic Forum (Davos), will speak in a keynote session titled ‘The State of the World’, where he will discuss the magnitude of the great changes that await the world’s economies in the future, and ways to strengthen the role of governments and their efforts to meet challenges and build a better future for societies.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will discuss in a keynote session the challenges of fiscal policy in the context of current economic and financial developments, and the role of economic and financial policies in maintaining economic and social stability. It also reviews current global and regional economic developments and future prospects, with a focus on key fiscal policy challenges and priorities.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus will discuss on the second day of the summit, a keynote session entitled “Global health priorities in the next phase. What is it, why, and how?” Shifting to digital healthcare and how to empower it for all, along with uniting efforts to eradicate epidemics and chronic diseases. It also examines how to strengthen the role of governments and organizations in accelerating the digitization of health systems and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
During a keynote session, ILO Director-General Gilbert Honjo will review the role of governments in designing future directions for work and jobs, and mechanisms to prepare for the changes and challenges of the employment landscape in the changing global economy, in light of technological developments and their impact on the labor market. Senegalese President discusses investment prospects and promising opportunities in Africa.
Regional Arab leaders
Among the leaders of regional organizations participating in the World Government Summit 2023 is the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who will speak on the second day of the summit about Arab prosperity and development, where he will address strengthening cooperation and joint Arab action, and developing areas of government work to create an Arab movement that reflects positively on administrative systems, and enhances the readiness of governments for the future.
During a keynote speech on the second day of the summit, the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jassim Mohammed Al-Budaiwi, will review the strengthening of partnership frameworks at the level of GCC governments, to ensure the building and creation of government work environments that incubate and stimulate talent, and a high degree of efficiency in attracting minds, and building the future skills system of human capital.
The Director-General of the Arab Administrative Development Organization, Nasser Al-Hattlan Al-Qahtani, will shed light during a session during the summit on the best ways and practices to develop the performance of Arab public institutions, in order to serve Arab governments and achieve the goals of their development plans efficiently and effectively, in light of the digital transformation that the world is witnessing.
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