Dubai: The world economy has not yet recovered from the 2008 downturn and unless leaders and thinkers worldwide come up with a universal solution, more countries will be negatively impacted, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy, warned.

Al Mansouri told Gulf News that the three-day Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai will be a platform for more than 700 thinkers and leaders from all over the world to discuss global issues.

The summit will begin on Sunday and will continue until December 1. The discussions will form the basis for action that will be planned at the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters next year.

"The 50 leaders and thinkers from the Middle East and North Africa region who will take part in the discussions will reflect views from the region on a number of feasible ways to fight economic recession," he said.

Al Mansouri will be co-chairman of the summit along with Sami Dhaen Al Qamzi, Director General of the Dubai Economic Development Department.

Feasible solutions

Al Mansouri urged the participants to think globally and reflect regional issues in their search for solutions in a fair and transparent way.

He said the world leaders must define the size and nature of the crisis and look for feasible solutions.

"In my opinion, the crisis has not yet been addressed on a global level and any arrangement that does not come through in a transparent assessment manner will be irrelevant and incapable of addressing the total issues from a global perspective," he said.

"We will continue to see countries and nations falling prey to the economic crisis one after the other. What we see nowadays in the EU zone is just a preview of what we are going to see in different parts of the world, if a global action plan is delayed.

"The globe will not recover from a crisis of this size and this nature unless we come up with global solutions," Al Mansouri said.

He said reports about economic recovery do not reflect the total picture.

"The UAE is in a good position, but this does not stop it from contributing to the building of a new system that will overcome the problems that led to the current crisis," Al Mansouri said.

"As one of the top-20 trading nations, the UAE has a great advantage in contributing to the creation of a sustainable economic system," he said.