Government Summit at Expo 2020 Dubai set to be historic
FORUM WILL SEE LARGEST GATHERING OF POLICYMAKERS, THOUGHT LEADERS
‘With the eighth annual World Government Summit (WGS) set to take place during Expo 2020 Dubai next year, we will witness the largest gathering of senior policymakers and political thought leaders, who will come together under one roof to drive an agenda for enacting real change for the global citizens,” Reem Ebrahim Al Hashemi, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General for the Expo 2020 Dubai Bureau, said during the opening session of the inaugural Frontiers Series 2020, organised by the World Government Summit.
The session, titled ‘2020: The Year of Expo’ explored her ambitions and expectations for the rollercoaster year ahead with two of the region’s biggest ever events colliding and combining to kick-start a process of enacting real social change from Dubai, which will fortify its reputation as the world’s crossroads when the dust of Expo 2020 Dubai has settled.
During her discussion, held on the centre stage at AREA 2071, an initiative by the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), Al Hashemi expressed her thanks to the future-forward leadership of the UAE. Together, she
■ said, they have forged a nation that welcomes and embraces people from all around the world to communicate, interact and exchange ideas to build a better future. Because of the visionary leadership at its helm, the UAE has become known as a land of dialogues, she said.
Connecting minds
The multicultural dialogues that have taken root in the UAE, she said, are a perfect demonstration of the theme of Expo 2020 Dubai and corresponds to the direction of the network set up by the World Summit Government which connects policymakers, political leaders and thought leaders to come together to have a positive social impact on the global citizen.
Al Hashemi also touched on the significance of the “connecting minds, creating the future” philosophy underpinning Expo 2020 Dubai and how it is driving the ambitions of the emirate’s leading initiatives. She said platforms like the Frontiers Series 2020, organised by World Government Summit, are crucial in shaping the dialogues that will be delivered and discussed at Expo 2020 Dubai.
“It’s more than a slogan to be used for us to show off at Expo 2020 Dubai, it is the approach that the whole world is following, where governments meet, talk and communicate here in Dubai,” she said, adding: “We aim to explore important concerns and topics that will shape the future through meaningful and constructive interaction between experts and decision makers.”
Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and patron of The Helen Clark Foundation (THCF), yesterday called for a curb on the spread of harmful content on social media.
She was speaking during the Dubai Future Week, being organised by Dubai Future Foundation at Jumeirah Emirates Towers.
Looking at the numbers, Clark noted that with more than 2.2 billion active users each month, Facebook currently ranks as the world’s largest social media platform, followed closely by YouTube with 1.9 billion users. In 2018, more than 300 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute, and 500 million tweets were sent on Twitter every day. Clark highlighted the need to address the gap between the scale of online content being generated and the capacity of social media platforms to monitor it effectively. She also made a call to action for governments around the world. Clark said that while implementing systems to detect harmful content online are essential, a wider regulatory approach is imperative to contain its spread.