 Your Highness, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Bakhtum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai. Your Highnesses, Co-Chairs of the Summit for the Global Agenda, Your Excellency, Sultan Said Nasser al-Mansuri, Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates, Your Excellency, Sami Al-Kamzi, Director General, Department of Economic Development, Government of Dubai. Excellencies, dear members of the Global Agenda Council, dear friends, welcome to the Summit 2014 on the Global Agenda. And I have to say, coming into this room, I felt already the vibrancy and the enthusiasm which brings us together. Your Highness, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Makhtum, I first would like to thank you. You and the government, the entire organizing committee, as well as the people of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates for your gracious hospitality and partnership. This Global Agenda meeting, and I would call it a true summit on the future, is organized in cooperation with the governments of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. I would also like particularly to thank you, Your Excellency Mohammed Abdullah Gargavi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs of the Federal Government of the United Arab Emirates, who is such a strong partner and friend. Your Highness, we always have been inspired by your leadership. Since many years, I have the pleasure and honor to know you. A leadership which is based on true long-term vision and future orientation. Your dynamic leadership is widely respected globally and more than ever is so crucial for the future of this region. The seventh annual summit on the Global Agenda has, as it seemed, shaping the transformations of the world. We are here and we represent the largest brainstorming and brain trust in the world. More than 1,000 experts, more than 1,000 participants from over 80 countries convening around 86 different global challenges and issues. And this year, we have integrated into this summit some innovations. First, we are focusing on transformation maps, which means we do not just want to have a discussion. We want to capture the wisdom of all of you here in the room using the newest technological capabilities. We also will meet together with representatives of our host government in future circles to make sure that what we are discussing here is also for the benefit of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. And my colleague Espen Aide will afterwards recognize some of you with the Global Agenda Council vision awards, which are given in recognition of excellence for innovation and collaboration. Dear friends, what makes us different? We want to have, when we look at the future, a strategic and holistic approach. We also are innovative by combining our meeting here with the ongoing interaction process via digital means. So we are here not just for a conference or for a meeting. We are here for engaging into an ongoing working process. We all know that the new global context seems to be one of fragility, turbulence, and volatility. And I just recommend to you to read the Global Agenda Outlook and you see there are so many fundamental issues and challenges which we have to face. But let's not forget, we do not face only challenges. The new world offers many new opportunities for advancing human progress and development to the next higher level. But what it needs, it needs deep transformation. And key to this transformation is the spirit which you all represent here in the room. It is not rejecting innovation and praising innovation. Since innovation is very often disruptive, it is so important to develop a long-term vision which helps us overcome the negative effects of disruption and to concentrate on the positive elements. We lack in this world leadership and trust. We all know it because we are too much absorbed in crisis management. What we are doing here is to help to avoid in the future to lose so much energy in crisis management. In this context, we can look at our host for setting a strong example. Johannes, last month you announced the launch of the National Innovation Strategy with the goal of making the country one of the most innovative in the world. And I quote you, innovation today is driven by effective institutions, strong policies, specialized skills, and an economy where all sectors work together to discover new ways of conducting business. Johannes, this goal could be absolutely translated into an imperative what we should do in the next days but on a global level. Shaping the future, that's what we are here for. And our deliberations, our work will have an impact. It will not have only an impact in Davos at our annual meeting. It will not have only an impact influencing so big issues and work streams at the World Economic Forum. And I just would like to mention infrastructure, the future of the internet, environment and climate change, a new framework for the global financial system, but this meeting should impact our thinking to make us more future-oriented. Let me conclude by saying this global future summit should carry the spirit which is so well represented here in this country as well in this audience, a spirit with a strong global mission based on our motto entrepreneurship in the global public interest, based on a global vision which is open and collaborative, strategic and systemic, inclusive and diverse. And finally, we all want to embrace a global spirit which includes a deep global commitment of responsibility. Ladies and gentlemen, I have now the pleasure to give the floor to your excellency, Sultan Said Nasser Alman Souri, Minister of Economy of United Arab Emirates. Thank you, Professor Klaus. I think you mentioned a very important point concerning the positiveness of this place. I would like to add just one more point. You cannot be really feeling so positive. When it comes to so many issues and one of the most important issue is the positiveness and the positive energy you feel when you are around Sheikh Mohammed. Such a wonderful feeling, Your Highness. We are really, very happy for your support, for your continuous support of this kind of a summit. But let me first thank His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Mahmoud Al-Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai for being here with us. I would like also to thank His Highness Sheikh Hamdan, the Crown Prince of Dubai for also being with us here. Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum and my colleague, His Excellency Samuel Daniel Gamzey, Director General of the Department of Economic Department in the Government of Dubai. And he is also the Co-Chair of the summit on the Global Agenda. Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Government of the United Arab Emirates, it is my honor to welcome you to the 2014 summit on the Global Agenda. We are so pleased and proud that the World Economic Forum is hosting the event for the 7th consecutive year in the OE, as this reflects our long, fruitful relationship. We are very proud of hosting this prestigious event in the OE, as it represents an ideal platform to achieve our leadership vision, represented in His Highness, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the President of the OE, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Mahmoud Al-Maktoum, the OE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to open new horizons for cooperation between countries, peoples, and cultures, also to continue providing practical solutions to the political, economic, and social challenges facing the world today. The summit brings together more than 1,000 global thought leaders who meet in the OE annually to discuss the most pressing challenges that humanity faces. The discussions in Dubai serve as a backdrop for preparing an action strategy for positive change at the World Economic Forum annual meeting, which will be held in Davos cluster next year. This is the early part of 2015. Her Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the summit on the global agenda comes at a crucial time when political volatility continues to rage in certain parts of the world. Extremism have raised its head in new forms, and genocide and refugee crisis has grown to become major concern severely affecting a number of countries. The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa constitute a great public health risk to the entire world, whereas related to unemployment, food security, immigration, and poverty persist around the world. Climate change, energy crisis, and scarcity of resources are no more just looming threats but grim realities. Of course, there are challenges in the area of global financial system too. The recessionary impact lingered in some regions as overcoming recession will represent a major challenge for many governments and also regions. While in the Middle East has been affected by these challenges, the region is also a focal point of positive attention, mainly due to the growth and development activities in the Gulf region. The UAE particularly has been at the forefront of several initiative and recent times in areas such as international aid, future of governments, and infrastructure developments. The UAE also brainstorms for a better world. Sharing the success of the UAE in creating a growth environment will be invaluable in finding effective solution to crisis situation and also in redefining the world development agenda. Of course, ladies and gentlemen, for us as a federal country, we represent stability and sustainable development. The UAE is also constantly working as a catalyst for positive change in the world. Of course, the UAE in general, we have been able to really develop a number of agendas, and of course, we have been able to address a number of issues challenging the UAE. But I would like to conclude one thing, and that is the UAE will always continue to be a beacon of hope and generosity for the rest of the world. I want to thank you for being here and I wish you success. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Minister Almansoori. Dubai is certainly an ideal place, as you mentioned, reflecting stability which we need in the world, reflecting hospitality. But I should also add reflecting the multicultural, multi or diverse audience which we have here in the room. So thank you for your hospitality. My call now on your excellency, Sami Al-Kamzey, Director-Channel of the Department of Economic Development of the Government of Dubai. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. I will go to deliver my speech in Arabic, so please if you want to use the translation devices, please do. Sahab is to move. Your Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Ruler of Dubai, Your Highness's Minister of Economy, Sultan Saeed Al-Mansoori, Co-Chair of the Summit and the Global Agenda, Professor Klaus Chav, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Your Excellencies, Honorable Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. It's a great honor to welcome you all in this summit which gathers all the intellectuals of the world. We are hosting the Summit on the Global Agenda in UAE, especially in Dubai, which focuses on the importance of international cooperation and promotes innovation. The Summit on the Global Agenda is a great platform for these global agenda councils which has been hosted previously and this is the biggest summit on the Global Agenda that's being hosted since 2008. This is a big achievement for us in the UAE. We are all keen and confident that our pioneer achievement that cover the social aspect and that has been really a source of inspiration and model for all the thinkers and experts who are here with us today in this global summit. And under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai has adopted the Sustainable Development Road and it has put it as the main goal for achieving growth. Dubai with its solid economy, strong infrastructure and concentrating on a knowledge-based economy and the competency of its human resources constitutes or can constitute a big pillar for the achievement and looking into our daily work, we can see that we have positive indicators about our economy and the growth in our economy in the different sectors such as trade, transportation and services. Dubai has been able today to find this positive correlation between the different people based on the continuous efforts deployed by our leadership in order to have interaction among the different people living in Dubai. Dubai is really hosting today more than 200 nationalities who are living and coexisting together, living in cohesion and peace. And in the light and the diversity of its economy, Dubai has added the Islamic economy based on a comprehensive and integrated system including Islamic finance, marketing the halal food products, family tourism destination and the Islamic art and design center. And as a multi-cultural society, Dubai is hosting Expo 2020, which once again is reinforcing the importance of the entrepreneurship and international foreign investment where the investors can invest in Dubai as has been the case in the last two decades. Hosting Expo 2020 will be an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to contribute in the development of this region, Dubai through Dubai Tourism 2020. And through the work of our leadership, we will be able to increase the number of tourists to 20 million by 2020 and to increase the contribution of the tourism sector in the local economy in Dubai to 300 billion dirhams. And also Dubai is adopting innovation. The vision of Dubai aims at integrating technology in the daily life of the people to improve their life. And I would like to highlight here that Dubai government has put a new legislation between the companies, the dealers and also the government. In this regard also, Dubai has launched the smart government or the e-government which has made Dubai the smartest city and this is through implementing the initiative of a thousand smart services that will provide the sustainable services and not to forget improving the living standards in Dubai for its people. And in the brainstorming of Dubai for a better world initiative, Dubai has exerted all efforts to have Dubai the best example of the federal emirate that has sustainable development and stability where we aim in contributing in having positive changes in this region and worldwide. Undoubtedly hosting this summit on the global agenda 2014 in Dubai is a clear message for the whole world that we are committed to face all the global challenges at the time where we are looking forward to continue our work in building a new innovative partnership. I would like to welcome you once again in this summit and I wish you best of luck and a good stay in Dubai and thank you. Thank you, your excellency. I'm convinced that at the end of this summit you will have 1,000 good ambassadors going out in the world to make promotion for the World Expo here in Dubai in 2020. And congratulations for having won this distinction to be the host of the Expo. My call now on my colleague Espen Aide, member of the managing board of the World Economic Forum, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Norway. Your Highness, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, friends, good afternoon. We are very proud of all our councils and in order to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of the global agenda councils and to further support their work, we have for the first time decided to establish a Global Agenda Council Vision Award. We are pleased to present the inaugural awards now to a select number of councils that have achieved exceptional impact during the past 2012 to 2014 term. The criteria we chose in order to select the winners was to look for breakthrough and forward-looking ideas to councils that focused on a major challenge related to the global, regional, industry agendas, ideas that displace vision, pragmatism and leadership, and that also clearly defines an execution plan with time-bound milestones and which has the potential to leverage the forum's multi-stakeholder communities. We decided also to divide the categories into two. So we have one set, two awards in the category, a breakthrough individual council idea and two awards in the category, a high-impact collaborative cross-council idea. And for the latter, this is very much an inspiration to one of the major themes of this year's summit that in addition to strengthen the council work, we also want to strengthen the work across council and find some good examples to do so. And I'm happy now to announce the winners in the first category, a breakthrough individual council idea. And the winner is the Global Agenda Council on the Intellectual Property System. This council worked on a number of projects to improve access to the benefits of international property system to the bottom of the pyramid. The council's main work was around the pro bono assistance, IP assistance project which was recently launched in Colombia. It also created state-of-the-art educational modules around IP and facilitated dialogue around the advantages and drawbacks of IP regulation. And I would now like to invite David Capos, partner in Crabba, Swayne and more to receive the award on behalf of his council. Please come up to the lecture. The second winner in this category, a breakthrough individual council idea, is the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Government. The council advanced the understanding of how technology is transforming government and the nature of politics. The Future of Government smart toolbox and the scenarios on the Future of Government provides an analysis on how technology is impacting the demands placed on governments to deliver more with less, as well as affecting government's ability to meet expectations. I would like to invite Professor Jane Fountain, Director National Centre for Digital Government, University of Massachusetts, to receive the award on behalf of the council. Then I will move to the second category, a high-impact collaborative cross-council idea. And there will be two winners and the two winners are two pairs of councils connecting from what might seem different starting points into one collaborative idea with concrete implications and consequences for policy. The first winner is the pair, the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals and the Global Agenda Council on Youth and Employment. These two councils launched a landmark 10 youth initiative. They created an innovative methodology of mentorship and apprenticeship models that on the one hand will help the unemployed youth acquire hard and soft skills that will be a big boost in their career development and on the other hand to provide companies with an efficient and affordable tool to find and retain the talent they need to succeed in their operations. So I will now announce the two winners and I ask them then jointly to come on stage. I would like to invite Sue B. Bagnan, the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court and Down Chair in Societal Progress in INSEAD and Jamie McOliffe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Education for Employment to receive the award on behalf of the two councils. Please come to the podium. Last but not least, the final prize, still in the category, a high-impact collaborative cross-council idea, goes to the Global Agenda Council on Africa and the Global Agenda Council on New Models of Travel and Tourism. These two councils raised awareness of the importance of travel and tourism for economic growth and job creation and developed critical solutions for the sector's development. The councils managed to elevate the issue of travel facilitation and highlighted the clear link between travel facilitation, growth and job creation. I would again like to invite the two council representatives to come here together. I'd like to invite Kathleen Matthews, Executive Vice President and Chief Global Communications and Public Affairs Officers at Marriott International and Archer Keng Lekke, Director of McKinsey and Company to jointly receive the award on behalf of their two councils. Please come to the podium. Now I imagine that all of you who are in councils are wondering how you can win the prize next time. And in order to give some insights, we have invited the GAC Vision devotees to be with us in a special session open to everybody this afternoon at 18.15 till 1930, here at the Plenary Hall before the dinners. And I invite everybody to be present and we'll have a discussion with the devotees about what they did, how they developed innovative ideas, how they developed this collaborative approach. In a second I will conclude, but I'd just like to underline that I would like everybody to be seated or standing until the dignitaries have left the room. And by those, and by saying that, I also wish you all a successful summit and I would like you all to your first council meetings, which starts at exactly 14.15 in the designated council area. Thank you and all the best for these days' work.