Outside the big set-piece events – the speeches from members of the ruling families of the UAE – at the 2015 Government Summit in Dubai, there was plenty of intellectual lubrication to keep the grey matter ticking over.
Klaus Schwab, the founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), appeared to be more provocative than he was at Davos last month. Maybe it’s something to do with the warmer climate, but the professor highlighted three quite controversial themes for the summit.
Top of his agenda was the “collapse of trust between leaders and those they lead, especially political and business leaders”.
That could be a touchy subject at an occasion where many of the political and business leaders of the UAE were in attendance, but in case anyone took offence, Mr Schwab was quick to “commend the UAE and its leadership for the vision with which the country is led, and which has made it the most competitive country in the region and one of the most competitive in the world”. Glad that one is cleared up then.
The other big challenges Mr Schwab identified were the changing economic environment, the effect of technological change on everyday life and the way we do business.
In conversation with Mohammed Al Gergawi – the Minister for Cabinet Affairs who is also the guiding light behind the summit organisation and a big advocate of the “smart city” concept at its core – the WEF chairman expanded: “In the new world economic order, it is not the big fish that eats the small; it is the fast fish that eats the slow.”
And on the pace of technological change, he was equally apocalyptic: “Change is not slow and gradual any more, it does not comes in waves; now it comes like a tsunami, and it is interwoven with everything we do, changing people and their lives.”
In this fast-moving world, we should be thankful for small islands of stability, such as Mr Schwab himself, who came across as a grand old institution in the swirling sea of change. “I’ve met practically every leader in the world over the last 45 years,” he informed the summit.
Later on the opening day, a veritable tsunami swept across the main plenary arena with the first session devoted to the issue of women and their role in the business and civil scene.
The feisty panel, led by Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, UAE Minister of Development International Cooperation, but ably backed by prominent women from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, was just getting down to one thorny issue: men were leading the world, but there were wars, economic problems, instability. Was this cause and effect, the panel asked?
Just as they were about to debate that question, one very important man walked into the hall. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, decided to hear the women’s debate himself.
In such august company, you might have expected the panel to tone down their calls for radical change for women, but no. Sheikha Lubna applauded progress the UAE had made towards female equality, but also pointed out that women comprised only 1 per cent of members of senior executive boards. She set a target of doubling that this year.
Just as forthright was Princess Ameerah Al Taweel of Saudi Arabia, who was asked if it was true that “behind every great man was a great woman”, in the words of the old saying.
“No, that’s not true. I’d rather say next to, not behind, every man you will find a woman.”
fkane@thenational.ae
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