Dubai - MENA Herald: The World Economic Forum Summit on the Middle East and North Africa is taking place at the Dead Sea in Jordan from 19 – 21 May 2017. Themed “Enabling a Generational Transformation”, the meeting brings together more than 1,000 government, business and civil society leaders from more than 50 countries, including 235 women leaders from across the Middle East and 100 founders of successful start-up companies to promote entrepreneurship based on new technologies.
The opening ceremony was hosted by King Abdullah II of Jordan and featured speeches by the King Felipe VI of Spain and President Fuad Masoum of Iraq. As a co-chair of the Summit, Chief Executive Officer of Crescent Petroleum Majid Jafar addressed the plenary session on the opening day of the Summit entitled “Towards Human Centric Growth”, on a panel which included Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon Ghassan Hasbani, and Global Managing Partner of McKinsey Dominic Barton.
Jafar highlighted than in recent years, the global financial crisis combined with rapidly evolving new technologies had changed the nature of economies around the world. In the Middle East and North Africa region, this required evolution in education and training and development of the workforce of the new generation in order to make them competitive for the jobs of the new economy:
“Our region has the highest youth unemployment rate average of any region in the world and among the fastest growing population. The new generation needs adequate preparation for the jobs of the future beyond”, Jafar noted.
“Studies show that simply increasing the education of the average worker by one year can lead to a 10% increase in local GDP per capita in some countries. While we have witnessed improvement in education in many Arab countries and in the GCC in particular, the system is struggling in some other countries, especially where a substantial portion of the population relies on public schooling or where good teachers have been lured away by better salaries and living standards. Ultimately, education systems across the Middle East North Africa region must see more investment from the public and private sectors if we want more successful economies,” he added.
Jafar also stressed the need to look beyond just economic and business results to measure success, and highlighted the leading role the UAE has played in developing new models for societal progress based on human development, including the Minister roles for Happiness and Tolerance, as well as the emphasis on new technologies of the future with innovation strategies in all government departments.
“The World Economic Forum has this year highlighted the Fourth Industrial Revolution – how new technologies have transformed how we consume, how we produce, how we communicate and how we live. And the UAE is at the forefront of developments in these areas today, embracing everything from robots and drones to smart government and innovation strategies which look to the future in all areas of societal development. This makes it competitive on a global and not just a regional level,” he added.
The World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa Summit takes place in the context of growing economic reform efforts that are being made in many countries of the region, as well as shifting investment and trade priorities. In addition, it aims to address continued geopolitical shifts and humanitarian challenges by supporting multi-stakeholder dialogue on the situation in Syria, Iraq and Libya, as well as the ongoing refugee crisis.