Watch: World Government Summit 2023 ends with final day focused on looking to the future

Watch: World Government Summit 2023 Day 3 in Dubai

The third and final day of the World Government Summit 2023 concluded today, with thought leaders, global experts and decision makers from around the world having led and participated in stimulating sessions to discuss ideas and strategies for a better future through international cooperation. In focus today was the dialogue between UAE Minister for Cabinet Affairs and World Government Summit Chairman Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi and Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter and Founder, CEO and Chief Engineer of SpaceX. Other speakers included Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi, and Ray Dalio, Founder, Bridgewater Associates.

Follow our live coverage of Day 3 of the region’s biggest gathering of leaders.

Summit ends

The three-day World Government Summit 2023 ends with Sheikh Saif's address. 

Sheikh Saif presents a video about how the UAE leadership is enabling UAE families

Sheikh Saif speaks about smooth transition of power

Sheikh Saif speaks on The Emirates: Solid Roots and a Vibrant Future

Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, UAE speaks on The Emirates: Solid Roots and a Vibrant Future

Emiratis representing the UAE globally received a special mention with photos at WGS by Sheikh Saif

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid attends speech by Crown Prince of Fujairah

Sheikh Hamdan gives away Global Government Excellence Awards

IE University School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs wins the coveted “Global Universities Challenge Award

LABX - Centre for Innovation in the Public Sector wins “Distinguished Initiative in Government Innovation

'Fujairah Port is ranked first in the Middle East in supplying fuel'

Al Sharqi said:” We have an advanced position in providing logistical support in the region. Fujairah Port is ranked first in the Middle East and second globally in supplying fuel. Fujairah Port will be transformed with Dh6billion.”

Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi about Fujairah's Strategic Outlook

Gas exports from Azerbaijan will be doubled by 2027

Azerbaijan is enhancing green energy capacity with several projects. Masdar is one of the major partners in this field.

Gas exports from Azerbaijan will be doubled by 2027.

Asadov highlighted various milestones achieved by Azerbaijan in several fields and emphasised his country’s role in integrating Asia and Europe.

UAE is one of the most stable and developed countries: Ali Asadov

The UAE is one of the most stable and developed countries, he said and congratulated the UAE’s leaders.

“Azerbaijan is a reliable partner and is seeking to work harder to establish peace, stability and corporation in the region. We both have been promoting mutual understanding and cooperation in the region. The extension of Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of the NAM is a valuable appreciation of our role in the international arena.”

Azerbaijan is enhancing green energy capacity with several projects. Masdar is one of the major partners in this field.

Ali Asadov delivers a keynote address.

An open conflict escalating to war is unacceptable: Joko Widodo

Widodo: “An open conflict escalating to war is unacceptable. I never imagined an open war will happen in this century. It is happening.”

Pointing out that humanitarian assistance should not be compartmentalised, he said peace and tolerance must be the priorities both within the governments and between components of society.

“I hope the WGS will offer ideas, action plans and innovation for global problems,” he added

Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia addresses WGS in a video message

We were the first country to bring back the fans to the stadium: Al Khater

Al Khater: “We were the first country to bring back the fans to the stadium. We had several guidelines which FIFA and other organisations used for some other events.”

World Cup moved in line with Qatar’s 2030 sustainable agenda, said Al Khater

Al Khater: “We had a challenge with workers and we wanted to change the standards for them which became beneficial as productivity increased.”

Covid regulations changed daily: Al-Ali

Al-Ali: “Covid regulations changed daily. Countries were facing several challenges. We told them to look at the changing situations and their budget and adjust. Logistically there were problems for countries building pavilions as shipments from China had stopped. Thank God, we remained with 192 countries and we were able to solve the problems.”

About 30 to 40 per cent of the more than 24 million visits to Expo were from people from outside the UAE which is an exceptional success, said Al-Ali

World Cup was the success of Arab countries: Al Khater

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai gave us very clear directives and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence and Commissioner-General of Expo 2020 Dubai was with us every single day of Expo, says Al-Ali

Expo in Dubai and World Cup in Qatar are events that will be difficult to replicate, says Al Khater

Massive turnout

Massive turnout of Emiratis at the WGS Plenary Session, which will have an elite list of speakers including Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, Executive Director, EXPO 2020 Dubai Bureau, Nasser Al Khater, CEO, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia and Ali ASadov, Prime Minister of Azerbaijan.

Evolution is permanent: Ray Dalio

We are largely driven by our sun-conscious so meditation is a great way to align this. I have been meditating since 1969. Evolution is permanent.

- Ray Dalio | Founder, Bridgewater Associates

'India will have the fastest growth rate and biggest change'

Ray Dalio, Founder, Bridgewater Associates: “USA is a country of individuals and individualism. So it’s bottom up. China is top down.”

“India will have the fastest growth rate and biggest change. India will do great. Europe is a place to go and have a good time.”

The future is closer than we imagine: Dawood Al Hajri

Dawood Al Hajri, Director General, Dubai Municipality, at a session “Future Cities: A City Without Boundaries” said: “The future is closer than we imagine. Two-thirds of the world have imbibed artificial intelligence and advanced technology. Food security technology is advancing as well and should reverse some startling numbers of 820 million suffering hunger everyday around the world. Food security technology can help reverse this.”

He said energy production is increasing owing to an increased demand and this will impact how buildings are made and cities built.

With 2023 slated as the year of Sustainabilty and a fact that UAE is holding COP 28, we are going to achieve much more strides in creating a sustainable city. What we need today is common governmental cooperation.

Tom Bilyeu at a session 'Creating an Unstoppable Mindset: How Can You Impact the World?'

Dawood Al Hajri at a session 'Future Cities: A City Without Boundaries'

'In the current context, there are no easy solutions for growth'

Malpass urges governments to act through these complexities and create conditions for sustainable and inclusive growth. “In the current context, there are no easy solutions for growth, the world is confronted with difficult macroeconomic conditions, slower growth in advanced economies in China high inflation, currency depreciations high fiscal deficits and debt,” he said. “It will take hard work to reignite growth and productivity.”

"Governments need to integrate climate and development in ways that increase energy access and speed up the transition to lower carbon energy," said Malpass. "This needs to be complemented by increased investment in climate adaptation investments in infrastructure to enhance energy, resilience and efficiency."

Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group, at 'Beyond 2023: A Global Outlook' session

Government need to act with impact

The theme of this summit shaping future governments is therefore especially timely, current and future governments need to balance complex goals, according to David Malpass, President, World Bank Group. For example, on energy, on the one hand, they need to provide reliable and affordable electricity to their people. On the other hand, they need to find that low carbon growth pass and provide a just transition for society to fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Shifting focus from Tesla to Twitter

Tesla went through some very difficult times where it was on the ragged edge of survival and if I didn't give it everything I got, the company could have easily gone bankrupt, said Musk. “It was really on the verge of bankruptcy for quite a while.”

“I don't mean to suggest complacency at this point, but you know it does require much less work to operate Tesla now versus say in the 2017 to 2019 timeframe,” he added. “It's not at multiple risks of supply. It's achieved economies of scale that make it you know, not on the ragged edge of survival.”

The education model must change

“If you teach to the problem and then say and then you understand, then you establish the relevance of the tools, then you're it's actually much easier to remember mathematics and physics because they help explain how the world works,” said Musk. “As opposed to teaching them without explaining why and simply teaching them it's like instead of having teaching to the problem teaching, currently people teach you the tool.”

“It would be like having a course on screwdrivers or a course on wrenches.”

AI comes with great danger

That is AI, it's both positive and negative. It has great promise and great capability. But also with that comes great danger. I mean, you look at say a nuclear, you know, just the discovery of a sort of nuclear physics. You had nuclear power generation, but also nuclear bombs.

Critical thinking is something that should be taught to children at a relatively young age

- Elon Musk | CEO, Twitter and Founder, CEO and Chief Engineer of SpaceX

Twitter to get a new CEO by the end of this year

Musk confirmed that Twitter will get a new CEO by the end of this year. “I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it's in a financially healthy place, and the product roadmap is clearly laid out,” said Musk. “So I don't know I'm guessing probably towards the end of this year.”

Musk encourages businesses and policy makers to speak authentically

And I think it's good for people to speak in their voice as opposed to how they think they should speak, said the CEO of Twitter. “I think that's the way to do it is to actually do the tweets yourself. And, and convey the message that you want to directly.”

Reputational value - Twitter verification

I think we are trying to have as many organizations and people and institutions verified as being legitimately those people in organizations is important, said Musk.

He addressed the gathering virtually.

X App - The source of truth

I have a long-term vision of something called x.com from back way back in the day which is an everything app where it's just maximally useful. It does you know, payments, and be as useful as possible as entertaining as possible and also to be like, a source of truth, like if you want to find out what's going on and what's really going on

Twitter it's certainly quite the roller coaster

Why did Elon acquire Twitter?

I thought about creating something from scratch, but I thought Twitter would perhaps accelerate progress versus creating something from scratch by three to five years.

And I think we are seeing just tremendous technology acceleration that, you know, three to five years is actually worth a lot.

'For me, it's about how simple it makes my life'

“For me, unicorns are not about their valuation being north of a billion dollars. For me, it's about how simple it makes my life. I can order food I can order groceries with a click of a button. Unicorns obviously play a critical role in creating jobs, spearheading innovation, and inspiring entrepreneurs to turn their daring ideas into successful ventures and sometimes to get back while being an entrepreneur may be more accessible and achievable than ever before, successfully scaling a startup and achieving unicorn status requires resources requires opportunity requires governance, and ecosystems.

There are 1200 unicorns in the world today: Hadi Badri

Hadi Badri, CEO of the Economic Development Department at Department of Economy and Tourism: “One estimate is that there are 1200 unicorns in the world today across 50 countries. Yet, it is widely believed that the first unicorns emerged in 2010. So basically, not so long ago. By 2021, there were 130 new unicorns every quarter, and in that year, the number of unicorns doubled.

And for those that are able to achieve that accolade, they seem to be doing it sooner and sooner from establishment. This is thanks to AI, new digital business models. And in some markets, something as simple as internet and smartphone penetration.”

Delegates arrive for final day of WGS 2023