The new Dubai International Convention Centre

The Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund will be held in an Arab country for the first time in September when Dubai hosts the world’s biggest financial gathering. Ben Smalley reports on the city’s preparations for the meetings and the benefits they are expected to bring to the region.

    Dubai is gearing up to welcome more than 14,000 delegates attending the Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are being held in the city in September.

    Among those attending will be the finance ministers and central bank chiefs from all 184 member countries of the World Bank and the IMF, as well as senior business and financial leaders from across the globe.

    The world’s biggest financial gathering is being hosted by an Arab city for the first time since the annual meetings began in 1946, and local officials are looking forward to the international exposure it will bring to Dubai, the UAE and the region as a whole.

    Ibrahim Belsalah, General Coordinator of Dubai 2003, said: “The Annual Meetings will enable the policy makers of the world to witness the true picture of the Middle East first-hand. This will be a perfect opportunity for the region to showcase its economic potential and opportunities for foreign investment. The Arab world offers great opportunity for international investment, yet less than two per cent of direct foreign investment is made in this region - and the combined GDP of the Arab world is currently less than that of Spain.

    “These meetings are an ideal opportunity to show the world what they are missing – that the Middle East is a region with enormous untapped potential for investment and trade. It has well-developed infrastructure, modern cities, and an educated and dedicated workforce which seeks a larger role in the global economy.”

    The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund have annual joint meetings of their Boards of Governors in a three-year cycle. They are held in Washington for two consecutive years and in another member country in the third year. Dubai was selected as the host country for 2003 and has been preparing for the event since 1999.

    One of the biggest investments has been the US$175 million (Dh 650 million) Dubai International Convention Centre, which will be the venue for the meetings, and also enable Dubai to market itself as a future host for similar global conventions, conferences and international events.

    “The convention centre has been designed for long-term use to benefit the UAE,” explained Mubarak bin Fahad, Director General of the Dubai World Trade Centre, which manages the facility. “The multi-purpose hall can be transformed into a number of different configurations for different purposes – as well as conventions and conferences, it can be used as a 6,000-seat theatre, or can accommodate 15,000 people standing for rock concerts and other similar events.

    “With many of the world’s business leaders attending Dubai 2003, they will get the chance to see this brand new, state-of-the-art facility for themselves. They will therefore be aware of its existence, as well as all the excellent facilities available in Dubai, when they come to plan their own international conferences and conventions. Coupled with all the other possibilities the facility offers, we see the convention centre as a major asset for Dubai and the UAE – and not just for the short-term.”

    The fact that the meetings are being held in the Middle East for the first time is reflected in the topics of open seminars which accompany the closed door sessions of the annual meetings – with issues such as women’s rights, nationalisation of workforces and Islamic banking all on the agenda.

    “It’s a mistake to write this event off as being about finance alone,” Belselah said. “This event will impact on all areas of lifestyle, culture, business and socio-economic development in the Middle East and around the world.

    “In order to understand what impact these meetings will have on the world, it is important to understand the purpose of the IMF and the World Bank: these two organisations are dedicated to eradicating poverty through aid assistance, the improvement of education and other social development programmes, as well as developing stable economies.

    “Take health as an example - the World Bank commits an average of US$1 billion in new lending each year for health, nutrition and population projects. And on education, the World Bank has provided US$31 billion in loans and credits, and finances 158 education projects in 83 countries. Meanwhile, more than US$14 billion has been used to fund environmental projects around the world to date.

   “Perhaps most pertinent to the Middle East is the World Bank’s assistance to countries emerging from conflict, which covers 40 nations at present, including Afghanistan. Top of the list is to assist war-torn populations, resume peaceful development and prevent a relapse into violence. On a day-to-day basis, the Bank’s work addresses a range of needs including jump-starting economies, investing in war-affected regions, repairing war-damaged infrastructure and targeting programmes to vulnerable groups such as widows and children.

    “All these projects are of huge interest to every one of us, and we must do everything we can to support initiatives like this. By hosting this event in September, and by making it as much of a success as possible, the UAE is playing a part in the facilitation of global policy making.”

    As well as finance chiefs and business leaders, representatives from more than 50 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are also being invited to attend the meetings to enable their voices to be heard as part of the policy-making process, and police say peaceful demonstrations will be allowed.

    Brigadier Abdul Aziz Mohammed Al Bannai, Director of the General Department of Security Establishments and Emergency at Dubai Police and Head of the Dubai 2003 Security Committee, said: “We are happy for all people to come to Dubai and express their opinions and views in a peaceful and law-abiding manner as the UAE is a free and open country.”

    He said facilities will be made available to NGO representatives at one of the colleges and universities in Dubai to hold meetings and press conferences on the sidelines of the main meetings, with the possibility of also holding press conferences in the Dubai International Convention Centre itself.

    However, Dubai Police are taking no chances with security and have been liaising with their counterparts in Washington and other cities which have held similar meetings in the past to prepare for any eventuality, although Al Bannai said the sort of violent protests which have been seen at previous meetings, and most recently at the G8 Summit in Evian, are not anticipated.

    “This is mainly because the culture in the UAE and Dubai is very different from other countries where the meetings have been held,” he said. “The population here comprises of people and families of virtually every nationality who live together in peace and harmony.

    “Also, the issues and causes of many of the demonstrations in previous years – notably environmental conservation and poverty alleviation - are also causes of the UAE. We have a lot of programmes in the country that address these issues. The UAE is among the highest contributors of foreign aid donations to developing countries – even more than some ‘developed’ countries - and the UAE contributes more than $2billion annually in foreign aid to developing countries, both Islamic and non-Islamic.”

    Increased investment in the region and the strengthening of trade ties are being cited as the main long-term benefits of the meetings being held in the UAE, but there are also immediate benefits through the direct spending of the massive influx of visitors – with more than 10,000 hotel rooms in the city block-booked for the 10 days of the event by the organising committee.

     “In the short-term we estimate there will be a direct investment boost of $45 million generated through spending on hotels, restaurants, transportation and other areas,” Belselah said. “Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of additional business is projected to be generated from the ripple effect of the meetings – repeat visits, word-of-mouth referrals and increased global awareness of the UAE and the region.”

    Some 5,000 local people will also be employed on a temporary basis to work at the event, including administrators and secretaries to assist the World Bank and IMF staff arriving from Washington to organise the actual meetings themselves, as well as hosts and guides for the thousands of delegates who are being recruited from UAE colleges and universities.

    “The temporary nature of the event makes it ideal for us to recruit highly motivated and skilled individuals from the UAE’s Higher Education sector,” Belselah said. “They will have the chance to not only work on the biggest international event ever to be staged in the UAE, but also to act as ambassadors for the dynamism and vision of our country.”

    Heading the campaign to enlist students for the event is the specially-appointed Dubai 2003 community liaison officer, Sara Ismail Mohammed, who says over 700 students from different emirates have already applied to work as part of the Dubai 2003 team.

     “The response from students and professors alike has been phenomenal, and we expect the number of students recruited to support the event to double by the end of August,” she said. “The students will have a wide range of roles to fill, from liaison officers at the airport, hotels and Dubai International Convention Centre, right through to tour guides.”

    Belselah added that the staging of the Annual Meetings in the UAE also presents an ideal opportunity to challenge and address misconceptions about the region and show the ‘true face’ of the Middle East.

    “For two weeks Dubai will effectively become the centre of the world’s financial sector as we host more than 14,000 of the world’s most influential people,” he said. “The eyes of the world will be on us at this time, and we are looking forward to demonstrating the realities of the Middle East as a stable region which has tremendous untapped potential for investment and trade, while also enabling Arab nations to project their entrepreneurial talents, initiatives and potential for investment and partnership.

    “The meetings will also help dispel any stereotypical misconceptions that some may hold about our people and culture. For example, in relation to women’s rights: UAE national women outnumber men in our universities and higher education institutes, and play a crucial role in our workforce and the development of our nation.

    “Delegates attending the meetings from all over the world will see this for themselves – and they will also see a modern city on a par with any in the ‘developed world’ where people from all over the globe live and work together in a safe, peaceful and productive environment.”