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Congratulating winners of the 16th edition of the ABLF Awards (Asian Business Leadership Forum) which was held at Expo 2020 Dubai, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Cabinet Member and Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, said: “We strongly believe that our success as a county and our success as a world community depends on our deep commitment to support ideas and developments that improve the lives of the people now, and the future.”
“Expo 2020 Dubai has demonstrated that peaceful, tolerant, and stable societies have a significant advantage in creating an environment of free trade and investment can prosper, where knowledge is shared, and technological developments are utilised and where market confidence and economic competitiveness are encouraged. At Expo 2020, and as we mark the 50th year of our nation, we celebrate our great success of having a remarkable balance between the goal of creating a market-oriented competitive economy and our commitment to our beliefs, values, principles, and well-being of all people. Expo gives us the opportunity to create something better for future generations, to do our part in redesigning and reshaping the future and to transform the world for the good of everyone.”
The event was held under the theme, Resilience Rising: The Great Reset. It witnessed around 20 partisans from industry, technology, policy, social enterprise, and art being honoured with the diamond-studded ABLF Trophy as a recognition of their success in directing their countries, communities and companies towards attaining greater stability and growth amidst pandemic led chaos.
Speaking at the function Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, said: “The most important lesson that we learnt from these years of fighting against coronavirus is that without global partnership, nothing can be done, however resourceful a country maybe.”
“This kind of a global pandemic can be tackled only when we are united. In African countries, on average less than 10 per cent of people have been vaccinated, while in the US the European Union and developed economies, almost 100 per cent of the people are vaccinated. In Korea, more than 90 per cent of people vaccinated, revaccinated, and have also received the booster shot. If people in one area suffer, then we all suffer. This is a hard lesson which I have learnt even while (earlier) serving as the UN secretary general. The UN member states have adopted the sustainable development goals and climate change agreement, but we also must think why are we suffering from this pandemic? Our civil and moral responsibility is to take care of nature. I urge developed countries to provide necessary financial and the medical support to all the people. Nobody is safe until everybody is safe. This is a hard lesson. Coordination and global partnership are imperative.”
Highlighting necessity for educational partnerships and shining the light on RewirEd, a global platform to rewire education for a prosperous and sustainable future, Dr Tariq Al Gurg, CEO of Dubai Cares said: “The good news after Covid is that education has finally united globally. We must create a new system in light of the all the technological development. What Covid-19 did was to unite the sector. The problem is Asia is not investing in education globally. We need to create a bridge between the East and West.”
Stressing on need to fight and tackle food security challenges, Mariam Bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment said: “Everyone who lives here in the UAE has seen such a rise in local produce after Covid-19, and we have really harnessed the power of technology. We are also keeping in mind about water as well. Consumers play an important role in this. So do partnerships. One thing that we are proud of is the partnership that we have done with the US. These two countries understand that the only way we can transform our food systems is to harness the power of technology innovation, even though one country is a huge agricultural country and the other country is a food importing country.”
SOURCE: Khaleej Times