 Your Highness, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, co-chairs of the Summit of the Global Agenda and the inaugural meeting of regional organizations, Highnesses, Excellencies, members of the Global Agenda Councils of the World Economic Forum, dear partners and members of the World Economic Forum, ladies, gentlemen, friends, welcome, a cordial welcome to the 2012 annual meeting on the Global Agenda, organized in cooperation with the government of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. Your Highness, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, I first would like to thank you and the government, as well as the people of the United Arab Emirates for your gracious hospitality. Your Highness, we have always been inspired by your leadership, one based on a true long-term vision, future orientation, and not deterred by setbacks. Your dynamic leadership is widely respected internationally and is so crucial for the future of this region. Dubai and your leadership, Your Highness, reflects so well the spirit which should guide us during our meeting, forward-looking, open, inclusive diversity, responsible and responsive. This is the fifth anniversary of the Summit on the Global Agenda and we have a record participation of 1,000 participants from over 80 countries, representing 88 different global challenges and councils. This meeting has become the foremost global brainstorming meeting, integrating the most knowledgeable and the most relevant experts. It is a worthy contribution, Your Highness, to the forthcoming birthday of the United Arab Emirates, a contribution coming from an organization, the World Economic Forum, which was also founded in 1971. This year, we have integrated a number of innovations to increase globally and locally the impact of our meeting. For example, through strengthening our online presence with innovative apps, facilitating interaction and knowledge sharing, through launching a series of public lectures and public-private dialogue series, through integrating young people, launching two global shape hubs in Dubai and in Abu Dhabi, through the inauguration of the first ever Summit of Leaders of Regional Organizations, whom I cordially welcome here, through cooperating closely with the United Nations to incorporate the recommendations of the Global Agenda Councils into the MDG's redesigned process. And here, I'm honored by the high-level representation of Jan Eliessen, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, and the presence of Gordon Brown, the special UN envoy on global education. Most important, let me announce here an initiative, a new initiative, which will allow leaders around the world to take better informed decisions. We will start here in Dubai to capture the knowledge of each of you with your help in a short video. This will lead over the year to a library of over 1,000 briefings, which will provide global decision-makers with better information and strategic insights. We will show in the final session one of those videos as a demonstration. One thing is evident if we look at the future of the world. Already in the coming years, our world will be completely different from what it is today. And of course, I trust you, the Global Agenda Councils, to place your deliberations into this evolving new context of the world. And I will mention only three fundamental changes, political, economic, and social. First, we will have to learn to navigate in a world without clear leadership. We will see a further erosion of unilateral power and formal organizational structures. This poses an enormous challenge to global governance and to the management of our global interdependence. And our first plenary session this afternoon will be particularly devoted to this issue. Second, we will have to confront a technological mega, or I should even say, giga or terror revolution, digitization, 3D manufacturing, desintermediation, for example, in the health sector in education and transportation, robotization will lead to an erosion of traditional jobs. The resulting job gap to provide job opportunities in the next 10 years for 400 million additional people will become, in my opinion, the biggest global concern. In addition, genetics, stem cells, superior revolution will redefine who we are and not anymore just what we are doing. And this will pose great ethical questions. Third, we have to search for meaning in a total global knowledge society. We will be challenged in the search of our identity, being constantly pressured by accelerating speed, complexity, interdependence, complete transparency, increasing diversity. And the danger is in such a world, in such a fast-changing world, that as individuals and as countries, we develop a bankrupt mentality or even a burnout syndrome. We feel very often that we just cannot cope anymore with the change we are confronted with. But that's exactly why we are here. We want to gather you as a multi-stakeholder, global community, build the world of tomorrow and show that unprecedented change means also unprecedented opportunities as our host city has shown us so well. I have now the pleasure and honor to introduce the co-chairs of this meeting. And I would like first to call on His Excellency Sultan Alman Suri, the Minister of Economy of United Arab Emirates, to address us. Thank you, Professor Schwab. We have actually simultaneous translation. My speech is going to be in Arabic. I think you should have the equipment right in front of you for those of you in the front seat. I think the others also have them. Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful, Your Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. Your Excellencies, Your Highnesses, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the government of the UAE, it is my honor to welcome you to the 2012 Summit on the Global Agenda. This Global Agenda is held in partnership with the UAE and the government of Dubai as well as the World Economic Forum. The Summit on the Global Agenda is held in the UAE for the fifth time in a row. And this indeed reflects the collaboration between the World Economic Forum and the UAE. The UAE has always proven its high quality in the organization of this important international event. We are very proud in the UAE to host this Summit on the Global Agenda because it is one of the most important platforms internationally. And we hope that we'll be able, through our readership vision, represented in his Highness, Sheikh Halifa Ben Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE. And his Highness, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to open new horizons for cooperation between the countries, peoples, and cultures to contribute to providing practical solutions to the political, economical, economic, and social challenges facing the world today. The Summit brings together more than 1,000 global thought leaders, academics, business leaders, government officials. And they participate through 88 councils who meet in the UAE annually to discuss the most pressing challenges that face humanity and this is a way to come up with practical solutions and recommendations that will be discussed during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum to be held in Davos in 2013. And this will lead to implementation mechanisms. Your Highnesses, your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the intellectual elite needs an exchange of ideas in the most scholarly and scientific manner in order to reach practical solutions in order to face challenges before governments and peoples on the one hand and facing growth and prosperity on the other. The UAE, for instance, over the past four decades, has realized great human growth resulting from its urbanization and economic growth. This became a model in human development, education, and technological progress, allowing and good economic engagement in building a society always working towards development based on our rooted human values and our history, which has always been a push forward and a catalyst for a better future. The UAE is a strong federation of seven Emirates that provides infinite good opportunities and a climate of tolerance. Our economy is open. We encourage entrepreneurship, innovation, and prosperity for all. The UAE is the first in the Arab world to have a knowledge-based economy and innovative-based economy based on the global competitiveness report 2012-2013 published recently by the World Economic Forum in its sixth edition. Also, our GDP has known a growth and is now over 1 trillion dirhams, which is the equivalent of $276 billion, which constitutes a growth of about more than 4%, which is something we expect to renew this year as part of our diversification of income and investment in development projects. We were able also to reduce the share of oil in our GDP to less than 30%. Our government ensures improved living standards and quality of life for our citizens and residents of the UAE, who belong to more than 200 nationalities. The UAE is the first Arab country and 30th globally out of 187 countries to figure in the Global Human Development Report 2011 issued by the United Nations Development Program. The UAE, since its inception by its founder, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and his brother, the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktub and their brothers, the rulers of the Emirates, our country has always remained committed to the effective contribution to regional and global level development by providing support to countries and peoples with the intention of alleviating their sufferings and enabling them to open new economic prospects. We have strive to build strong relations that pave the way for further development and prosperity to build a world that seeks cooperation, not wars and confrontation. The economic reality in the world today requires us to have a larger role to play in shaping the global economic order, as well as empowering the social development debate and revisit those mechanisms that have not led to an alleviation of poverty that led to a lot of consequences. Therefore today, we need a partnership between rich and poor countries, between large and small and medium enterprises, and between global organizations and specialized organizations must be formed. It is essential to reinforce our efforts and take practical steps to find appropriate solution and implement them successfully. This requires that we narrow the gap between rich and poor countries. We must recognize the risk of climate change and the importance of preserving the environment and building a green economy. Every child in this world should have the opportunity to receive quality education in a socially healthy environment if we are seeking a world which is safe, stable, and dominated by human values, competition, and innovation. Then we should enforce efforts to educate all the children in the world in order to teach them that hope is the key to success and innovation. We should enhance awareness in the business sector because governments alone are not responsible of the development process and delivery of services to the citizens. Social responsibility must be one of the most important mechanisms to improve the conditions of the people and contribute to the building of new values and the relationship between companies and communities. Your Highness, ladies and gentlemen, our world today is witnessing rapid changes at all levels, including political, economic, cultural, and we must carefully study these variables. It is here that the role of over 88 councils in this summit becomes relevant in order to provide us with the best recommendations that contribute to building the world and in poverty and illiteracy and seeking to build prosperous communities. I firmly believe that this summit will be distinguished on all levels. In our turn, we'd like to thank all the participants and we wish you all the success in your endeavors. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Your Excellency Minister Sudan Al Mansouri. I now call on His Excellency Dr. Anwar Gagash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates and also Co-Chair of his first meeting of leaders of regional organizations. Thank you. Thank you very much. My speech will also be in Arabic. So if you bear with me, please, with your translations. Your Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Deputy Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Your Excellency Klaus Schwab, the Executive Founding Director of the World Economic Forum. And Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you here in Dubai. And it is a great pleasure to me to see you participating in this summit of the Global Agenda Councils that is being hosted in the UAE for the fifth time consecutively. The UAE is adopting a policy based on encouraging and enhancing international cooperation and improving bonds and gives great importance to working with all the partners, international partners, dynamically to face all the international renovative challenges that are increasing on the Global Agenda. And this is proved through our hosting of many of the international meetings. And this summit is one of the most important meetings to discuss the global issues concerning the development, future development, and sustainable development. The UAE has the perfect location to host such a summit as we host in this country people from all over the world. And we are proud of our heritage and culture that encourage us to have dialogue and tolerance and to build relations with other cultures. And we believe that cooperation, communication, and dialogue are the right answers to overcome differences and to bring peoples together and closer in a very sound manner. And our meeting of today is an opportunity to enhance this cooperation and come up with a common vision for a better future. And I'm sure that I'm confident that we are always anxious for meeting in such international fora. And in our meeting of this Global Agenda Councils, we are here to discuss issues related to policies. But most importantly, the issues that are being raised are a tool to come up with mechanisms for becoming a proper future for this region and the world at large. And the economy prosperity is finding its place back again in this region. And we are seeing its evidence everywhere. And despite the fact that Europe and the US are still suffering from the economic crisis, we still have regions like the Gulf, Africa, and East Asia are becoming the motor or the generator for this economy. However, there are concerns and challenges, economic challenges, like the lack of natural resources. And many other issues are considered very important on the agenda of the emerging economies meetings. And we have so many issues on the international agenda that range between specific sectors like finance to other sectors that include under the umbrella of macro economy, like partnership and investments. Therefore, in our discussions, we have to dwell into the opportunities for the future economy and to create opportunities for the future generations. However, the regional issue that we consider the most important and the most critical is the continuous ramifications of the Arab Spring and its impacts on the region. Though that we have new regimes in the region which are still developing and still finding its place and building their roots, still we have very severe impacts from this Arab Spring that started like two years ago. Despite these facts, there are still successful regimes and balanced ones and stable ones. But they are under international pressure to stop those activists who are calling for changes. And therefore, these different councils cooperate closely in order to come up with the best answers for the challenges that are posed on the international or global agenda and to find the future overlook of the governance in Africa and in many parts of the world. And these councils would be seizing the opportunities to develop their ways of responding to the international developments. The UAE is giving high importance to working continuously with the global agenda councils to increase awareness in the guidance of the UN in the fields of human rights. And this is also done through calling all companies and the corporate sector in the UAE in order to be aware of protecting and observing the dimensions, all issues related to human rights. Dear ladies and gentlemen, during the next two days, the leaders of the international organizations from all over the world would be discussing the global agenda and the common challenges that face our organizations. And they will be exchanging ideas related to the best ways of facing these challenges. We are so pleased to host this first meeting of the international groups in the UAE, which is, and our happiness is due to our convection that we should have these alliances, international alliances to enhance cooperation and prosperity to overcome our international borders. And we hope that this cooperation would be the wheel towards development on different sectors, economically, socially, and et cetera. However, the international cooperation important and more important is the regional one. And I encourage you all to discuss the issues raised in a very innovative way, as the World Economic Forum is considered one of the important forum for discussing creativity and come up with creative solutions coming out of several processes. And Dubai is the city that provokes and invokes creativity and is open to all ideas to update the tools that are suitable for the challenges of this future. I thank you all for your presence and participation and your visit to the UAE. I hope you would benefit from the deliberations, and I welcome you to this meeting. Thank you. Your Excellency, thank you very much. I just want to underline also the importance of this first meeting of leaders of regional organizations, and I would like to welcome the leaders cordially because sustainable globalization will have to be built on strong regionalization processes. I have now the pleasure and the honor to introduce His Excellency Sami Al-Gamzi, the Director General of the Department of Economic Development of the Government of Dubai. In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful. Your Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Sumo Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Vice Ruler of Dubai. Your Highnesses, your Excellencies, distinguished delegates and guests, I have the pleasure to welcome you once more at this summit on the global agenda, and Dubai is proud to host it again this year, thus reiterating our commitment to foster dialogue on a prosperous future for the world. Hosting the summit reiterates the growing recognition of Dubai as the best gateway that can seamlessly connect people and trade today. Ladies and gentlemen, despite global economic circumstances, Dubai has retained its vitality as one of the best places to live and do business. The UAE improved its ranking in the doing business report 2013 of the World Bank to 26 among 183 countries against 33rd last year. The UAE has jumped 24 rankings, reaching the rank of 24 globally compared to 46 last year. Therefore, it has become the first in the Arab world in this indicator. The World Bank has also adopted the business registration and licensing procedures in Dubai as the standard for the ease of starting a business in the UAE. The chief engines of the exceptional growth are trade, tourism and logistics, attracting investments, exports and re-exports sectors have been the bedrock of Dubai's evolution into a global hub. Estimates show that Dubai's economy will grow at more than 4% in 2013. Dubai has shown its capacity to attract companies and investors from throughout the world and they were able to attract a total of 113 companies worldwide, 415 projects and getting strategic partnerships of a total value of 16 billion dirhams for the first half of this year. Tourism remains a pillar of Dubai's preeminence and services. Tourist arrivals in Dubai grew 10% and total revenues by 19% during the first half of 2012. Over the first six months of the year, more than 5 million tourists visited Dubai and it's expected that Dubai will welcome the same number for the second half. Passenger traffic through Dubai International Airport increased by about 14% for the first six months of 2012 and the airport is projected to handle 75 million passenger by 2015. Dubai is focusing on building facilities, communication, fostering infrastructure up to the best world class criteria, improving services and expenditure. The successful restructuring of government-owned businesses allowed reimbursements of debts while maintaining the sustainability of development. Ladies and gentlemen, Dubai has a model of excellence development based on the visionary leadership of creating an internationally competitive international hub where we can welcome projects and allow enterprises of all sizes to do business while providing the best to those individuals who choose Dubai as their place of residence. I would like to draw the attention here to the green economy for sustainable development which is an initiative launched by His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed Berasheed Al Maktoum and has positioned Dubai firmly among global cities leading to transition to a green economy preserving the environment and as a hub for exporting and re-exporting green technology. Dubai also alongside its growth has maintained its philanthropic activity through some initiatives that have attracted the attention of the world. The initiative of Dubai Care has improved the situation of more than seven million children and improved their basic education. Dubai Care was chosen to join the initiative launched by the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, entitled Education First, giving all children the opportunity to get a good level of education. Ladies and gentlemen, we look forward to benefiting from this intellectual dialogue between decision makers, policy makers, and planners in development from all over the world, emphasizing our role and capacity in building a better future for our region and the world, wishing you all the best in your endeavors. I thank you again for being here with us and I wish you a good stay in Dubai. Thank you. Thank you. This concludes our opening session and we will reassemble at two o'clock for the first plenary session on global governance.