 is acquiring agency. Many developing countries want a broader representation of their interests. What do we do to make sure that the technology that we're developing will spread to the 30% that is disconnected already globally outside of the digital landscape? We need to change because of climate. We need change because of digitalization. But we need that transition from here to there to be fair for everybody. The institutions of the 20th century will need to be retrofitted, to be made more agile and more responsive to manage the technological age. The entire system is to enable increased connectivity. That's where the world is going. We need to innovate faster. And to do that, we need to move to a different paradigm. It's about trial and error. It's about experimenting. Interdisciplinary is vital to tackle today's big challenges. We cannot work in isolation. We have to make the right choices, whether it comes to finance, whether it comes to innovation and technology, whether it comes to governance. The nature of the task and is a man. We need all hands on deck. Your Excellencies, members of our Global Future Councils, partners of the World Economic Forum from the business community in the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries at large, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great pleasure and that of all of my colleagues here to welcome you today as we gather for the 2023 annual meeting of the Global Future Councils, a community of foremost experts and thought leaders on frontier issues that are shaping the future of our economies and societies. We have over 400 of such leaders with us here in Dubai this week who will hold a series of carefully prepared working sessions across over 30 topics ranging from quantum and AI to circular economy, cybersecurity, and geopolitics. It is hard to believe, it is already the 14th time that we are convening for such a unique brainstorming of leaders in the United Arab Emirates and I wanted to first thank the leadership here for their longstanding support for this endeavor and congratulate them on the overall unwavering commitment to shape a better future through dialogue, entrepreneurship, and innovation. While we built on such a great tradition, holding this meeting this year feels particularly special given how much the world has changed over the past few years. This is the first time that we are here after the pandemic and you add to that the ongoing geoeconomic, technological, and societal shifts and the geopolitical shocks, we have arguably entered a new era. In this unprecedented context, being able to simply come together from around the world, from all walks of life to jointly grapple with dilemmas regarding our collective future could not be more important and should definitely not be taken for granted. In addition, and more concretely, we see two reasons why this meeting and the work of the Global Future Council's community is needed more than ever. First, given the powerful tides of fragmentation and polarization, sweeping societies, but also geopolitical and international relations, there is a premium on being able to make decisions in context and consider all relevant factors to avoid a tunnel vision. Therefore, both the councils and their work here in Dubai is structured in a way to drive cross-sector learning and deliberations. They focus on drawing new connections from among a variety of disciplines and focus on exposing leaders to different, at times, opposing views. And the second reason we see, as we have seen with Generative AI this year, ours is a time of exponential change when formerly nascent issues can quickly go to market, so to speak, and completely transform industry and society. Therefore, again, the councils and their work here is also going deep on such issues to sharpen our collective foresight and bolster our resilience for this new era. That we, again, are hosted for this ambitious and future-oriented agenda in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, could not be more emblematic of the overall role the UAE continues to play in the world. From being the most globally integrated economy of the region to the first Arab nation to have its astronaut at the International Space Station and perform a spacewalk, the UAE continues to be in the vanguard of change, pushing the envelope on innovation and not giving up on cooperation and dialogue, which is so important, also given the tensions we are seeing now in this region. So the person who really embodies this spirit so ably, who has been with us on this initiative since the very beginning, who also really is personally engaged across the many pieces of work that we have with the UAE, the World Economic Forum, is His Excellency Muhammad Al-Gargawi, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, whom I have the pleasure now to invite you to the lectern to open the summit officially. Mahali Wazir, Shukran Jazeelan, live Sharaqa, Ma'ana, Mumtaza, Warafida. The floor is yours. Thank you so much, Minister Gargawi. Good afternoon. I'll be speaking in Arabic if you can use your headset please. Members of the Global Future Council's distinguished guest piece be, may peace, mercy and blessing of Allah be upon you. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the annual meeting of the Global Future Council's 2023. We annually celebrate, today we gather to celebrate more than 20 years of strategic cooperation between the UAE government and the World Economic Forum. This is guided by our common vision and our desire to shape a better future for humanity and our passion for finding answers to the questions and challenges facing our societies. Some may claim that answering big questions is more important than searching for answers to less pressing issues all along history. Man has always been asking questions related to his existence, development, the environment and the future of the world in which he lives. Honorable guests, every great doctrine started with a question, every great discovery in the history of mankind started with a question. And the most important science, which is philosophy and is based on a set of major existential questions with every development, with every discovery and with every answer, we start to ask new questions to pursue our march of development. With every new coast we reach, we start wondering what lies beyond. With every invention we believe will change the history of mankind. We immediately start to wonder what's next. Maybe that's what makes human beings stand out as compared to machines whose ability is limited to answer some questions. Our edge is that we can formulate new major questions. The future of humanity continues to depend on our ability to ask new questions that light up our curiosity and drive us to reach new convincing answers. Perhaps our gathering here today with over or more than 500 thought leaders from 80 countries and more than 120 global top universities and 22 international organizations will enable us to formulate new questions tackling different topics such as digital transformation, the geopolitical shifts, all the way to climate change, the economic and social shifts, space sciences and synthetic biology. Honorable guests, allow me to seize this opportunity to raise three new questions. First and foremost, can we discuss the future of economics, politics, technology, et cetera, without settling issues related to the future of the principles of justice and equality among humans. Humanity has witnessed large scale wars. Yet today, humanity has reached a stage of maturity, cultural convergence and common values where it cannot turn a deaf ear to any human tragedy and act as if we are living in another dimension. As we convene today, we need to raise this humanitarian question, equality and dealing with human lives where a human being stays a human being wherever he may be. This equality which to preserve human beings as humans wherever they are and protecting him remains the duty of all his fellow humans. We also need to discuss equality and economic and technical opportunities as the economic gap is widening. 1% of the world owns half of the world's wealth and this number is expected to grow to 66% by 2030. Also, the technical gap has increased. Today, we are talking about the unprecedented development and artificial intelligence and its computing power which has multiplied more than 300,000 times from 2012 to 2020. On the other hand, 37% of the world's population, approximately 3 billion people, have no access to the internet. Perhaps the answer to this question is to redefine what we mean by the protection of basic human rights and to agree on these norms internationally, the right to having a life, the right to live with dignity, the right to have equal economic opportunities, the right to have seamless access to knowledge and technology and the right to maintain a balanced environment for the future generations to enjoy. The second question, how can we protect this planet for future generations? This is one of the existential questions which is linked to questions on new sources of energy, new models of economy, new development alliances, innovative technical developments, protecting natural resources, and raising the awareness of individuals, societies and countries on the most threatening challenges facing Earth. If the climate change challenge is not duly addressed, humanity will probably face the threat of having more than 1.5 billion climate reviews and economic losses of more than $32 trillion by 2050. If we do not answer the question of climate change, perhaps hosting the largest global climate gathering at the UAE can contribute significantly. By that, I mean COP28 can contribute significantly to answering some of these questions. Our role today through this gathering is to further discuss how to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and environmentally conscious world. My third question, what is the best model for governments and international organizations to deal with future challenges, digital transformation, climate change, economic issues, among others? The recent COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that the difference between success and failure in governments is directly linked to their ability to address crises with agility, wisdom, while maintaining a humanitarian approach. History taught us that the price of failure is grave and may extend over generations to come. Some studies state that the cost of government failure may reach as much as five times the level of the country's GDP before its failure. Our question is, how can we restructure policymaking, make a radical shift in strategic planning, and strive diligently towards developing skills that enable us to address the new challenges facing humanity? Distinguished guests, in conclusion, we hope that these meetings shall mark a new milestone and our march towards shaping a better future of humanity, a future that features overarching equity, sustainability, and readiness, all through a new methodology that starts with asking the right questions, adopting innovative mindsets, and which is governed by the will to usher peace and prosperity to humanity as a whole. Thank you all, and may the peace, mercy, and blessing of Allah be upon you. Your Excellency Minister, thank you so much for your important words today and for the overall partnership. If you can play, please stay seated. We will have now the opening plenary with my colleague, Sajjaz Ahidi, sharing it in about two to three minutes while we rearrange the stage. So please stay seated. Thank you.