Abu Dhabi: The UAE official delegation has departed the UAE to participate in the G20 Leaders Summit in Cannes, France on 3-4 November 2011.

Led by Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister, the delegation also includes Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, and Nasser Ahmed Khalifa Al Suwaidi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development and UAE G20 Sherpa.

GCC Presidency

The UAE, holder of the GCC Presidency this year, is participating in the G20 Summit of world leaders for the first time at the invitation of the French Government in its capacity as holder of the G20 Presidency.

To coincide with the commencement of the summit, the UAE has also launched an official website in Arabic and English in order to make the topics discussed at the G-20 available to Arabic speakers across the Middle East. In particular, the website seeks to engage the region's youth in a dialogue about the key issues facing our region and world today.

Learn more about G20

The first official Arabic-language website ever created for the G20, ‘UAEG20.ae' is specifically designed to enable people in the UAE and across the region to learn more about the G20 and follow the process online.

The Group of Twenty (G20) is a forum that brings together the leaders of 20 of the world's most advanced and emerging economies to discuss issues related to the global economy. Collectively, the G20 members are estimated to contribute around 80 per cent of the world's GNP, represent 80 per cent of world trade and two thirds of the world's population. Permanent members of the G20 include the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Russia, China and India, amongst others.

Each year, five additional countries are invited to participate in the G20 process. As one of the invited countries in 2011, the UAE has participated in discussions throughout the year alongside permanent members in order to prepare for the G20 Leaders Summit.

Opportunity

Sheikh Abdullah said: "Participation in the G20 forum is a unique opportunity for the UAE to expand its cooperation with some of the world's largest economies. This is an important platform for the UAE to share its expertise across a range of policy areas and help develop solutions to the most pressing challenges on the international agenda."

The G20 has a broad agenda and the UAE is committed to actively participating. As such, the UAE has identified five key areas of greatest relevance to the UAE and the region and it is in these areas that the UAE has focused its contributions in recent months.

Discussed in detail on the ‘UAEG20.ae' portal, these five key areas include:

Food security and water, Climate change and energy efficiency, Fossil fuel price volatility, Global governance reform, and Global economic stability and open investment.

Agenda

Al Suwaidi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development and G20 Sherpa (the title used for a country's representative in the G20 process), said: "Senior representatives from the UAE have been working closely with their counterparts from across the G20 to help shape the agenda to be discussed at the Leaders Summit this week. This has been an important opportunity for the UAE to offer its insights in areas of national, regional and international importance and we look forward to cooperating further with G20 member countries in the future."

Experts from across many government entities have been participating in G20 working groups since February of this year. The working groups are charged with preparing decisions for meetings of ministers throughout the year and establishing consensus on policies that will be presented for endorsement by the leaders at the summit.

A UAE Steering Committee consisting of representatives from all ministries responsible for matters relevant to the G20 agenda has also been formed to support the participation of the UAE Government in this important international forum.