World Governments Summit provides ‘exceptional opportunity’ to address today’s challenges: Experts

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Updated 13 February 2024
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World Governments Summit provides ‘exceptional opportunity’ to address today’s challenges: Experts

  • The three-day summit, set to kick off in Dubai on Monday, will bring together 25 world leaders and heads of state
  • Participants will tackle pressing global issues across different fields, including economy, technology, artificial intelligence, sustainability, finance and education

DUBAI: This year’s World Governments Summit will present world leaders and delegates with a unique opportunity to combine efforts and address ongoing challenges amid rising regional tensions, organizers said ahead of the mega-event.

The three-day summit, set to kick off in Dubai on Monday, will bring together 25 world leaders and heads of state, 120 governmental delegations, more than 85 international and regional organizations and institutions, and distinguished thought leaders and experts.

The participants will tackle pressing issues facing humanity across different fields, including economy, technology, artificial intelligence, sustainability, finance and education.

Mohamed Yousef Al-Sharhan, deputy managing director of the WGS Organization, told Arab News that the 2024 summit offers an “exceptional global opportunity” to develop inventive solutions for the “challenges and changes facing the world, including recent conflicts experienced across regional and global arenas.”

He said since its inception, the WGS has served as the most significant global platform for world leaders, policymakers, experts, and officials from government and private sectors to exchange expertise and knowledge, as well as discuss pressing global challenges.




Mohamed Al-Sharhan, deputy managing director of the WGS Organization, said the summit aims to bring leaders together to address challenges. (Supplied)

This year’s event comes amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East since Israel’s war on Gaza broke out, killing more than 27,000 Palestinians — mostly women and children — and bringing a new set of health, educational and developmental challenges.

In a statement to Arab News, Nasser Saidi, former chief economist and strategist at the Dubai International Financial Centre, and former minister and first vice governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, named three major challenges facing governments as they meet at the WGS: the growing visible consequences and risks of climate change, the accelerated growth of the digital economy due to the implications of using AI and related technologies, and the “New Cold War” resulting from growing fragmentation and deglobalization as the US, the EU and their allies decouple from China amid geopolitical conflicts and turmoil.

“Each of these challenges is greater for developing and poor countries,” said Saidi.

A growing multipolar world is evident in governments’ policies that are leading to increased economic and financial fragmentation.

The number of global trade restrictions introduced each year has nearly tripled since the pre-pandemic period, reaching almost 3,000 last year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

This “New Cold War,” Saidi said, could result in a 7 percent loss of global gross domestic product according to the IMF, due to global supply chains becoming less efficient, and inward-looking, self-sufficiency policies being disguised as restrictions on access to tech and critical resources.

“It will be strategically important for the governments meeting at the WGS to rapidly mitigate the risks of a New Cold War and its potential consequences, including growing strategic and military confrontations,” he added.

The growing climate divide and rapid growth of AI will also affect economies, societies, politics and militaries, and lead to greater degrees of inequality within countries.

“AI magnifies the risks of under-investment in the digital economy, and the growing digital divide between advanced economies and developing countries unable to invest in digital technologies and educate their populations for the digital economy,” said Saidi.

The investments required for climate adaptation to make infrastructure services resilient will also be costly for developing countries, requiring governments to partner with the private sector, which will have to provide 80 percent or more of the financing.

“Along with the growing use of robotics, AI will have profound implications for how governments are organized, and how they will deliver goods and services in general, let alone re-educating and retraining their workforce,” said Saidi.




The World Governments Summit is set to welcome more than 4,000 attendees this year. (Supplied)

Held under the theme “Shaping Future Governments,” the summit will host over 200 prominent speakers — including presidents, prime ministers and experts — who will share their insights in keynote speeches and panel discussions, alongside 23 ministerial meetings and executive sessions welcoming over 300 ministers.

The mega-event covers six main themes through 15 global forums and over 110 interactive dialogues and sessions. It is set to welcome more than 4,000 attendees.

Guests of honor

Headlining this year’s event, taking place until Feb. 14, are leaders from Qatar, Turkiye and India as the guests of honor.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani will be among 25 world leaders and heads of state attending the summit.

Al-Shahran said the choice of Turkiye, India and Qatar as this year’s guests of honor is aimed at highlighting exceptional examples of advancement and progress across diverse domains including economy, technology and education.

The summit, he said, will provide these nations with a platform to share their insights and best practices with the global community.

“The WGS seeks to illuminate exemplary success stories that serve as global benchmarks, with Qatar, Turkiye and India emerging as standout examples of economic transformation in recent times,” he added.

“Their remarkable progress not only underscores their individual achievements, but also highlights the broader potential for growth and development across various regions.”

The three nations’ participation, Al-Shahran said, solidifies the summit’s status as the foremost global initiative dedicated to examining exemplary practices and facilitating knowledge exchange.

“Our aim is to achieve the main objectives of the World Governments Summit, foremost among which is to promote collaboration and learning on a global scale, as well as fostering a more interconnected and prosperous future for all,” he added.

Arab ministers

The WGS 2024 will witness the participation of more than 100 ministers from Arab countries, including speakers such as the prime ministers of Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi will also be among the attendees.

Representatives of international organizations such as the UN, the World Bank, the IMF and the World Health Organization, alongside technology leaders from the private sector, will address current and future global challenges and forge solutions for a more developed, prosperous and secure future across various sectors.

Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, and Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, are among the main attendees.

The ministerial meetings taking place on the summit’s sidelines will include those for Arab finance ministers; energy ministers; justice ministers; government development ministers during the Arab Government Administration Forum; and Arab youth and sports ministers.

The summit will also see leaders from the private sector, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, Schmidt Futures co-founder and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Yann LeCun, vice president and chief AI scientist at Meta.

African leaders will also receive a platform at the WGS, with a main session for Rwanda’s president, and a plenary discussion bringing together the presidents of Madagascar, the Maldives, Mauritius and the Seychelles.

A dialogue will take place between Nobel Laureates Michael Levitt and Sir Richard J. Robert, who are among eight Nobel Prize winners to attend the summit.


Suspected Somali pirates seize a new Yemeni fishing boat in second recent attack

Updated 56 min 51 sec ago
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Suspected Somali pirates seize a new Yemeni fishing boat in second recent attack

  • Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 when 237 attacks were reported

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Suspected Somali pirates have seized another Yemeni fishing boat off the Horn of Africa, authorities said.
In a statement late Tuesday, a European naval force known as EUNAVFOR Atalanta said the attack targeted a dhow, a traditional ship that plies the waters of the Mideast, off the town of Eyl in Somalia.
It said the attack Monday remained under investigation. It comes 10 days after another pirate attack on another Yemeni fishing boat which ultimately ended with the pirates fleeing and the mariners on board being recovered unhurt.
Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 when 237 attacks were reported. Somali piracy in the region at the time cost the world’s economy some $7 billion — with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.
The threat was diminished by increased international naval patrols, a strengthening central government in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, and other efforts.
However, Somali pirate attacks have resumed at a greater pace over the last year, in part due to the insecurity caused by Yemen’s Houthi rebels launching their attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
In 2024, there were seven reported incidents off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau.


After decades in exile, Syria’s Jews visit Damascus

Updated 19 February 2025
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After decades in exile, Syria’s Jews visit Damascus

  • The new authorities have said all of Syria’s communities will play a role in their country’s future
  • The synagogues and Jewish school in the Old City remained relatively well-preserved

DAMASCUS: For the first time in three decades, Rabbi Joseph Hamra and his son Henry read from a Torah scroll in a synagogue in the heart of Syria’s capital Damascus, carefully passing their thumbs over the handwritten text as if still in awe they were back home.
The father and son fled Syria in the 1990s, after then-Syrian president Hafez Assad lifted a travel ban on the country’s historic Jewish community, which had faced decades of restrictions including on owning property or holding jobs.
Virtually all of the few thousand Jews in Syria promptly left, leaving less than 10 in the Syrian capital. Joseph and Henry — just a child at the time — settled in New York.
“Weren’t we in a prison? So we wanted to see what was on the outside,” said Joseph, now 77, on his reasons for leaving at the time. “Everyone else who left with us is dead.”
But when Assad’s son and successor as president Bashar Assad was toppled in December, the Hamra family began planning a once-unimaginable visit to Damascus with the help of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a US-based advocacy group.
They met with Syria’s deputy foreign minister at the ministry, now managed by caretaker authorities installed by the Islamist rebels who ousted Assad after more than 50 years of family rule that saw itself as a bastion of secular Arab nationalism.
The new authorities have said all of Syria’s communities will play a role in their country’s future. But incidents of religious intolerance and reports of conservative Islamists proselytizing in public have kept more secular-minded Syrians and members of minority communities on edge.
Henry Hamra, now aged 48, said Syria’s foreign ministry had now pledged to protect Jewish heritage.
“We need the government’s help, we need the government’s security and it’s going to happen,” he said.
Walking through the narrow passages of the Old City, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, Henry and Joseph ran into their onetime neighbors — Palestinian Syrians — and later marveled at hand-painted Hebrew lettering at several synagogues.
“I want to see my kids come back and see this beautiful synagogue. It’s a work of art,” said Henry.
But some things were missing, he said, including a golden-lettered Torah from one of the synagogues that was now stored in a library in Israel, to where thousands of Syrian Jews fled throughout the 20th century.
While the synagogues and Jewish school in the Old City remained relatively well-preserved, Syria’s largest synagogue in Jobar, an eastern suburb of Damascus, was reduced to rubble during the nearly 14-year civil war that erupted after Assad’s violent suppression of protests against him.
Jobar was home to a large Jewish community for hundreds of years until the 1800s and the synagogue, built in honor of the biblical prophet Elijah, was looted before it was destroyed.


Lebanon official media says Israeli strike kills one in south

Updated 19 February 2025
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Lebanon official media says Israeli strike kills one in south

BEIRUT: Lebanese official media said Israel struck a southern town on Wednesday, killing one person, a day after Israeli troops withdrew from most of the border area apart from five points.
"An enemy drone struck a vehicle... in the town of Aita al-Shaab," near the southern border, the official National News agency said, reporting one person was killed.


Israel army says charges five soldiers for abusing Palestinian detainee

Updated 19 February 2025
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Israel army says charges five soldiers for abusing Palestinian detainee

  • The detention center near the Israeli border with Gaza was created to hold detainees from the Palestinian territory early in Israel’s war with Hamas

Jerusalem: The Israeli military said Wednesday it had filed charges against five reservist soldiers for abusing a Palestinian detainee in July last year.
“Today, the military prosecution has filed an indictment against five reservist soldiers under the charges of causing severe injury and abuse under aggravating circumstances... against a security detainee held in the Sde Teiman detention facility,” it said in a statement, referring to a site used to hold Gazans since the war began.
“The indictment charges the accused with acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee’s bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum,” the statement said.
It added “the acts of violence have caused severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an inner rectal tear.”
It said the incident took place on July 5, 2024, following an instruction to conduct a search of the detainee during which he was “blindfolded, and cuffed at the hands and ankles.”
The detention center near the Israeli border with Gaza was created to hold detainees from the Palestinian territory early in Israel’s war with Hamas, sparked by the militant group’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.
Earlier this month, an Israeli military court sentenced a soldier to seven months in prison after he admitted to “severely abusing” Palestinians at the same detention facility.


Baghdad-Beirut flights sell out ahead of Nasrallah funeral

Updated 19 February 2025
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Baghdad-Beirut flights sell out ahead of Nasrallah funeral

  • Beirut airport will close for four hours during the funeral

BAGHDAD: Flights from Baghdad to Beirut are nearly at capacity as airlines increase services ahead of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral, officials said.
The pro-Iran group has called for a huge turnout when Nasrallah, killed in a September Israeli strike, is laid to rest in the Lebanese capital on Sunday.
“Iraqi Airways will increase its flights to Beirut from one flight a day to two, starting on February 20,” said transport ministry spokesperson Maytham Al-Safi, citing heightened demand ahead of the funeral.
An Iraqi airline official told AFP that “all seats on Iraqi Airlines flights from Baghdad to Beirut are booked.”
A source from Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) reported increased flights between Baghdad and Beirut from Friday to Tuesday.
The airlines’ websites show that Iraqi Airways flights are fully booked until Sunday, with MEA nearly sold out.
Iraqi lawmakers and officials are expected to attend Nasrallah’s funeral privately, an Iraqi official said.
Representatives from pro-Iran Iraqi factions, Hezbollah’s longstanding allies in the Tehran-led “axis of resistance,” are also expected to participate.
Beirut airport will close for four hours during the funeral.
Hezbollah has said 79 countries would be involved in the commemoration, either officially or through “popular” support.
Sunday’s funeral will also honor Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah figure who had been chosen to succeed Nasrallah, before he was killed in an Israeli strike in October.
After decades at the helm of the group once seen as invincible, the killing of the charismatic Nasrallah sent shock waves across Lebanon and the wider region.
Since Nasrallah’s death, portraits of him, either alone or alongside other slain pro-Iran commanders, have been displayed throughout Baghdad and other areas of the Shiite-majority country.
On Sunday afternoon, thousands are expected to attend a “symbolic” procession for Nasrallah in Baghdad’s northwestern neighborhood of Kadhimiya, which is home to a Shiite shrine.