World Government Summit opens in Dubai

DUBAI / WAM

The seventh session of the World Government Summit kicked off on Sunday morning in Dubai with the participation of more than 4,000 people from 140 countries, including heads of state, ministers and officials who will gather to redefine the future of governments and unite efforts to shape the future of the world.
The summit will include 600 speakers ranging from heads of states, top thinkers, leaders and delegates and 30 international organisations. Additionally, 20 reports with latest figures, studies and data will be published during the summit to help decision-makers and officials formulate future strategies.

‘Governments are shifting from age
of innovation to age of imagination’
Dubai / Emirates Business

As we seek to optimise the potential of Globalisation 4.0, the era where technology and globalisation are seamlessly intertwined, “we are moving away from an age of innovation and towards the Age of Imagination”, HE Mohammed Abdulla Al Gergawi, UAE Cabinet Minister and Minister of Cabinet Affairs and The Future said on Sunday at the opening of the seventh edition of the World Government Summit.
Al Gergawi’s opening remarks were given at the “Globalisation 4.0” plenary session which opened WGS, and were followed by an address by Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum who said: “We need to move away from crisis management to more constructive management.”
Professor Klaus highlighted the inability of governments to keep pace with developments in technology as a core concern and articulated the need for enhanced awareness of the depths of change.
Professor Schwab’s address followed the opening remarks by Al Gergawi, on Day 1 of the seventh edition of the World Government Summit (WGS 2019) in Dubai.
Following the opening session, Professor Schwab engaged in a dialogue with His Excellency Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi about the need for cities to become platforms for the creation of entrepreneurship-focused ecosystems that encourage imagination and innovation as the key drivers of global competitiveness.

During his address at the official opening ceremony, Professor Schwab identified the speed of change, global transformation from a unipolar to a multipolar world and the new wave of populism, where people do not want to be left behind, as the main stress factors exerting pressure on the global system.
He listed the imbalance caused by rapidly evolving technology, the challenge of data protection, and the breakdown of social and ecological systems as threats to the world in the age of Globalization 4.0.
Professor Schwab said: “We have to change course. We have to move from globalization to a new type of globalization – what we call Globalization 4.0 – which is in line with the modern world, with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with a multi-polar world.”
He described Globalization 4.0 as a more sustainable, more inclusive environment where all stakeholders of society – including women, youth, NGOs, businesses and governments – participate in the process of change with a renewed moral code to reinstate trust in leadership through addressing challenges such as corruption.