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Dubai: The World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East will hold special sessions on Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and Syria, and will make a special effort to see how to get round the present gridlock in Palestine, trying to take into account November's presidential elections in the US.
Many senior leaders from around the region and further afield are due to attend the May meeting in Egypt's Sharm Al Shaikh. President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been invited to attend the forum, and a high level delegation from the UAE is expected to attend, Sharif Al Diwani, Middle East Director of the World Economic Forum told Gulf News on Monday.
Leaders who have accepted invitations include King Abdullah of Jordan, King Mohammad of Morocco, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines.
Tony Blair will be there in his capacity as the Mideast Quartet's ambassador to Palestine. France and Germany will attend at a senior level to promote the European Union's new neighbourhood relationships with Arab states as the existing EU Associate status becomes out of date.
The three-day forum will have several substantial political strands, looking at the major trouble spots in today's' Middle East, but in addition it will examine how three significant forces are driving major political and social change in the Middle East, said Al Diwani.
It will look at the social effects of the hyperlinked world, in which technology will allow all groups of people, but particularly the young and women, to self organise on issues they care about and consolidate their positions, regardless of any remaining censorship.
It will also look at the implications of China's expected rise to extraordinary power, creating a bi-polar world. China's huge commitment in the region as the world's largest consumer of energy will be part of the future close mutual relationship which is just starting.
Al Diwani pointed out that this has started with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah's visit to China, and the high level Dubai delegation to Dalian last year, in addition to a substantial level of Arab business interest in China.
The third force that the forum will examine is how the Middle East is becoming more sustainable in its environmental and energy usage. It will take a look at how plans for large economic and population growth can be supplied with adequate water, and the strain that the new demand will put on desalination capacity.
Agenda: Sovereign funds
The World Economic Forum is working closely with the Arab Business Council to develop further points on the agenda, which will also include how Sovereign Wealth Funds should operate, and the importance of starting better and more corporate social entrepreneurship in the Middle East.
"There are around 700 such companies in the world that we know of, and only four are in the Middle East," said Al Diwani.
"The Arab Business Council will help find responsible citizens and benchmark the growth of corporate social entrepreneurship in the Middle East, where the potential is hug," he said.
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