Aqdar World Summit Continues in its 2nd Day in Abu Dhabi

The second edition of Aqdar World Summit held under the theme “Role of Human Empowerment in Developing Stable Societies: Sustainable Development.” continues in its second day at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre – ADNEC in Abu Dhabi with the presence of a number of officials.

Presenting a session entitled “Gender Parity: the Mean for a Balanced Society”, Her Excellency Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid, Cabinet Member and Minister of Community Development, said : “The directives of the UAE government focuses on the balance between the two genders rather than on the equality, as the balance is deeper and more comprehensive.”

She then explained that “gender balance is the equal distribution of opportunities and resources between women and men and it is one of the important issues in the UAE Vision 2021, which seeks to raise the level of women’s participation in society, especially in the economic sphere, by giving them equal opportunities with men in all fields to contribute to the process of comprehensive and sustainable development while taking into consideration their different needs.”

Her Excellency stressed that: “balance is not a new concept for the UAE community. It is part of the culture of the people of this region for thousands of years and it is a tangible value rooted in the country’s culture before even the union.”

“The Constitution of the United Arab Emirates stipulates that women shall enjoy full rights as of men and includes provisions that affirm the principle of social equality and the full right of women to education, work and jobs, same as men. The Constitution enshrines all that is stated by Islam regarding women’s rights in regards to inheritance and ownership, which was the case before the establishment of the Union.” She stated

Her Excellency Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid also added that: “Our leadership has been keen to establish women’s economic institutions, such as, the Emirates Businesswomen Councils and the Businesswomen’s Councils in each emirate. According to 3-year reports, we have 12,000 women entrepreneurs in the UAE who own over 22,000 projects, with investments exceeding 45 billion dirhams. Emirati businesswomen make up about 21% of all businesswomen in the GCC, and it is the highest percentage.”

She concluded: “Statistics show that women hold about 66% of government jobs in the country and about 37.5% in the banking sector. Also, there are about 11,000 investment projects run by businesswomen, worth over $ 4 billion.

Furthermore, Women in the UAE are at the forefront of the board of directors, and are expected to be ranked first in the world very soon in light of the rise of the female component and leadership in many fields.”

Conference Sessions
On the 1st session of the second day, Dr. Ahmad Mohammad Alkandari, Consultant Doctor and a Specialist in Sustainable Development, spoke about the education as one of the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030.

He discussed in his session the importance of education in developing nations and the progress achieved since adopting the 8 Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and the 17 SDGs 2030.

The focus of his session was on providing equal primary education for both genders with a special attention on the learning objectives and learning criteria and how different are they in the Gulf and Arab countries comparing to the rest of the world? as some of the developed countries have adopted advanced education strategies decades ago which helped them achieve high ranks in regards to the global quality of education. This requires a lot of effort and cost, reaching 21.6% in New Zealand and 8.6% in Italy of the state budget.

He has also discussed the quality of education in the Gulf and Arab countries, its global position and the extent to which they have achieved the indicators of education included in the sustainable development goals, especially in terms of the formal, technical, vocational and higher education for adults of both genders.

His paper has also highlighted the importance of eliminating disparities in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the disadvantaged groups; socially, financially, and disabled persons, as well as building appropriate educational facilities and creating a secure environment so that everyone can acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to support sustainable development and promote a culture of peace, tolerance, and global citizenship.

The second day has also witnessed a session on “Telecommunication sector: the strategic partner and the pivotal enabler for the smart infrastructures” that was presented by H.E. Ahmed bin Ali Alhammadi, Senior Vice President – Etisalat Group, where he explained that Etisalat Group participation will highlight the importance of the telecommunication sector as a strategic partner and a central provider for the smart infrastructures in light of the world changes.

He said: “The means of communication have changed dramatically over the past few years and have become revolutionary in no time and the UAE was at the forefront of this advancement, as it has excelled in enabling the telecommunication sector in the UAE to become one of the unique infrastructures of the country.”

In his session, H.E. Ahmed bin Ali Alhammadi presented the future technologies’ capabilities and their impact on enabling artificial intelligence, smart cities and the Internet of things to offer variety of solutions and services which will pave the roads for governments and individuals to make a quantum leap in the communication and business outcomes, such as 5th generation congestion control, accident forecasting systems and self-driving vehicles. Moreover, the uses of the 5th generation in the energy sector and smart cities as maintenance forecasting systems and management of smart waste. Also, the applications of the 5th generation in accident forecasting, intelligent reaction systems, as well as smart homes and various health uses.

He has also showcased the role of smart infrastructure in stimulating and accelerating innovation, and the role of telecom infrastructure in providing unlimited access of the information, in terms of time and place for innovation and scientific research purposes, as well as its role in introducing non-traditional business models such as electronic banking transactions, education and health services.

Jiang Xiheng, Vice President, China Center for International Knowledge on Development, presented a session entitled “UAE and China-Partners for Sustainable Development” where she said: “It has been 5 years since Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in the Autumn of 2013. With the principle of common development through consultation, joint efforts and shared benefits, over 100 countries and international organizations have signed MOUs or agreements with China for jointly building BRI. Trade and investment have been increasing among BRI countries against the background of declining global investment and trade. Special economic zones invested by China have been contributing to employment opportunities, taxes and capacity building in host countries.”

She explained that BRI and the SDGs share many commonalities, including, among others, the same objectives as they are both committed to promoting economic growth and enhancing people’s well-being; similar areas as they both identify infrastructure development and sustainable industrial and agricultural development as the priorities; inter-connected roadmaps as they both hold that countries should carefully consider their national reality and practical situations as well as focusing on building new-type partnerships.

Recommendations for strengthening the partnership between China and UAE for sustainable development
She concluded saying: “Following President Xi’s visit to UAE, the collaboration between the two countries will be further promoted, especially in the areas of energy, non-oil sectors like services and new technologies under the comprehensive strategic partnership and the enhanced linkage between BRI and UAE Vision 2021. To realize the goals, policy coordination, knowledge sharing and capacity building deserve more attention.”

Commenting on his session entitled “How to develop a world-class educational system in 8 years?”, Pavel Kuzmin, Director of Moscow Center for Quality Education said: “The main goal of the changes in the Moscow education system, started 8 years ago, and was to allow each child to receive a high-quality education at a school near his home. Constant dialogue with parents and the urban community, the search for various tools for fruitful interaction between the city administration and schools, the selection of metrics and criteria for measuring the productivity of change helps to achieve this goal.”

He assured that Moscow education politics aim to reduce social inequality, abandoning the elitism of educational institutions and children selectivity. Olympiads’ results, ratings and international studies show positive changes in the Moscow educational environment.

He said: “The society is gradually adapting to new challenges of the world. The ability to search for information has become as important as fundamental knowledge. The assessment of cross-disciplinary competencies in comparison with subject knowledge has become much more difficult – which is the main issue to be discussed.”

He concluded: “Education extends beyond the school walls and scales to the city level. The urban environment becomes a school of life for students: museums, cultural centers, techno-parks, laboratories are transformed from leisure zones into educational centers, and corporations and technology companies from the centers of attraction of personnel into participants in the educational process.”

Dr. Obaid Al Blooshi, Academic Researcher, discussed in his session entitled “Challenges and Solutions of the Digital ID in Future Cities” the concept and components of the smart city, knowledge city, or the digital city, where smart cities are the cities that use advanced technological solutions to enhance the lifestyle and the services provided.”

Speaking on his session entitled “Telehealth Failures and Secrets to Success: A Blueprint for UAE and the World, Dr.  Milton Chen, CEO at Vsee said: “The first-generation telehealth services such as TelaDoc, AmWell, MDlive, etc raised awareness, but had very little impact on the overall healthcare (in terms of cost and clinical outcomes).”  In his session, Dr.  Milton Chen explored the second-generation telehealth – where it allows you to re-imagine healthcare from the ground up – where it allows new players like Amazon, Walmart to enter the market.  He showcased the latest technologies that are transforming healthcare – from AI to point-of-care labs to genomics – where telehealth is the fabric that ties these new capabilities in shaping the entire healthcare of a country.  The talk will showcase specific telehealth examples in the Mideast.

Commenting on his session under the title “Maritime National Industries” H.E. Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman of Dubai Council for Marine and Maritime Industries said: “From the very beginning, the wise leadership of UAE set a strategy to foresee the future with the main focus on investing in the human capital as they are the pillars for developing sustainable nations.

He also discussed a real case of how we transferred all the challenges and difficulties that faced us into successes and achievements by employing the right talents and explained how the hard work always boost the development to build international partnerships.”

He added: “After the financial crisis in 2008/2009 and its devastating consequences on the economies and businesses of the developed countries, it was necessary to face the risks and reduce their repercussions. The UAE has proved its ability to deal with this global financial crisis and even managed to deal with the available opportunities wisely and professionally.”

He continued on saying: “I have been requested to revive one of the well-known national companies to control the consequences of the financial crises and achieve the best possible results. My team and I were able to restructure all aspects of the entire company (the management, finance, technical departments, etc.), all under the full support of our leadership. The status of the company has completely changed and shifted into an important stage; the sustainability change and then into the development change (growth and excellence). In a short period of time the business indicators of the company changed locally and globally and it was clear that the company had entered the stage of sustainable growth. I represented the success of UAE on so many levels, as it has achieved a sustainable and diversified growth and mark the UAE as a global model.”

He concluded: “We have built huge projects with state of art technologies in the maritime energy field in the USA, Germany, Italy, UK, Russia, and Australia that we all shall be proud of.”

Parallel workshops & youth circle:
The activities of the second day of the Summit featured a youth circle under the title “The Impact of Economic Growth on Youth and Finding the Decent Job” and it was attended by guests from the Ministry of Economy Youth Council.

Also, a number of workshops were running parallel to the conference sessions and included a workshop under the title “99 Dialogues with the Soul” presented by Saud Mohamed Hasan Mohamed AlHammadi, Acting Head- Department of Preaching and Counseling, and Abdulla Mohammad Ahmad Al Ansari, Director of Community Research, Awareness and Public Relations in Erada Center for Treatment and Rehab. There was also another workshop under the title “My Journey: Back to Life after Addiction” presented by Ali Hassan Al Marzooqi, Health and Research Department Director of National Rehab Center, where he hosted a recovering addict and showcased the reasons for his falling for addiction and the challenges that faced him as an addict, as well as how successful the program was and how it helped him to get back to life.

Exhibition:
On the sidelines of the conference, the parallel exhibition hosted more than 50 exhibitors from the both private and government sectors from the region and the world. Visitors and participating delegates were introduced to the latest projects and solutions in the field of sustainable development and human empowerment.