Saudi Arabia to host World Economic Forum Middle East Summit

Saudi Arabia will host a World Economic Forum (WEF) “special meeting” on the Middle East in the Fourth Industrial Revolution in April, WEF President Borge Brende announced in Davos.

“The next Middle East summit will be held in Saudi Arabia on the 5 and 6 of April this year,” Brende said.

In partnership with Saudi Arabia’s G20 Secretariat, the WEF aims to “provide the region’s stakeholders the opportunity to assume a proactive posture,” according to the official announcement on the WEF website.

The Kingdom also assumed the presidency of the G20 in December of last year, making it the first time the summit will be hosted by an Arab nation.

The WEF meeting considers Saudi Arabia’s presidency “a unique opportunity for the entire region to take a global view of its future.”

The theme of the WEF meeting will be the Fourth Industrial Revolution, highlighting the complex technological change and the attendant need for industry, government, and civil society to work together to shape it.

Other transformative issues that the WEF has long-standing work on will also serve as a base to build on during the meeting, the announcement added.

Saudi Arabia’s new role at the pinnacle of the Group of 20 leading global economies is a result of reforms that have been in the works for over a decade, according to diplomats and officials.