For the past 10 years, an annual summit in Dubai has brought together leaders, thinkers, policymakers and experts in diverse fields from the country and around the globe. The World Government Summit, being held this week, is one the world’s major platforms for high-level delegates to exchange ideas on a broad and urgent range of topics.
This time, from the region and beyond, 20 presidents and hundreds of ministers will participate at the summit, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. There will also be in attendance Nobel Prize winners, policymakers and corporate figures. Elon Musk of Twitter and Tesla, Ray Dalio of Bridgewater, and Christian Bruch of Siemens Energy are just some of the headliners.
High-level summits with illustrious participants who have extensive domain knowledge and experience go a long way to set the global agenda for the coming year. It is fair to say that given the scope of participation and breadth of topics and in-depth nature of dialogues – and even bilateral agreements – conferences such as the World Government Summit and last month's annual World Economic Forum at Davos shape the course of the year's relevant and pressing discussions. For its part, the UAE is an especially conducive and neutral ground in facilitating these discussions and is uniquely equipped to bring together different personalities across sectors and nationalities.