World Government Summit 2022: UAE minister Al Gergawi highlights need to ring in positive changes globally

Dubai: As the world is witnessing an increase in inflation, rise of Metaverse and cryptocurrency, governments around the world should be prepared to ring in futuristic changes, Mohammad Abdulla Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs, said at the World Government Summit here today. He added that the previous World Government Summits had rightly forecast major changes when the pandemic was predicted during the 2018 summit, two years before COVID-19 struck and left 480 million people infected the world over and dealt a $10 trillion blow to world economy.

“Preparing for the future makes you part of it. We foresee upcoming developments in our world — economically, scientifically, technologically and politically — to deal with the rapid changes,” said Al Gergawi, at the opening of the World Government Summit in Expo 2020 Dubai.

During the opening session of the two-day summit, Al Gergawi said he believed there were three main areas to focus on for future changes — global inflation, Metaverse, cryptocurrency and the private sector.

“The speed of change in the world is always bigger than expected, which makes the study of the future, flexibility of governments and speed of decision-making all the more important now than ever,” he explained.

Al Gergawi said that in the past two years, digital economy multiplied eight times to reach $4 trillion (Dh14.71 trillion), online education grew 11 times, and the time required for developing vaccines was shortened from six years to 100 days. “What happened in the last two years exceeded the changes we witnessed in the last decade. The speed of change is always bigger than we expect. There are no given when dealing with the future,” added Al Gergawi.

He called upon all governments to strengthen their partnerships with the private sector to ensure security of world communities and provide a better quality of life. “Today, major developments in health, space and science are led by the private sector. Governments shouldn’t take anything for granted when it comes to dealing with the future.”

He said the summit will have 14 specialised forums to find answers, define priorities and prepare the world for the future.

The World Government Summit brings together 4,000 participants and 30 international entities from 190 countries.