World Government Summit Discusses AI

The opening session of the World Government Summit (WGS) in Dubai (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The opening session of the World Government Summit (WGS) in Dubai (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT

World Government Summit Discusses AI

The opening session of the World Government Summit (WGS) in Dubai (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The opening session of the World Government Summit (WGS) in Dubai (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The governments' adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies has become inevitable, which is no longer an option, according to the UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the World Government Summit (WGS) Organization, Mohammad al-Gergawi.

Gergawi is expected to witness an upcoming biological revolution surpassing the technological revolution, and 90 percent of media production would be through AI without human intervention.

During his opening session, "A Decade of Change," on the first day of the 10th WGS, Gergawi touched on the refugee crisis, noting that on November 15, 2022, the world crossed the threshold of eight billion people.

The world will witness a radical change in illiteracy and skills, saying illiterates would be those who can't deal with AI technologies.

The Minister indicated that natural disasters cost humanity about $3 trillion, noting that climate change, which could displace more than 1 billion refugees by 2050, costs a $23 trillion loss for the world.

In his keynote speech at the Summit, the Founder and President of the World Economic Forum (WEF) (Davos), Klaus Schwab, stressed the urgency to develop new mechanisms that strengthen international cooperation in today's multipower world.

Schwab also stressed the need for concerted efforts to implement structural transformations within various strategic sectors, including the economy, technology, and politics, in light of the humanitarian crisis the world is witnessing.

He said technological transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution would impact the world for years.

"Governments in different parts of the world should play leading roles in keeping pace with changes," Schwab said.

Regarding structural transformations to be witnessed in various vital economic sectors, Schwab said there will be about 10 billion people in need of energy by 2050. He stressed the need to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and reach zero carbon emissions.

Schwab pointed to the political changes taking place in the world, which are transforming the globe from a unipolar world to a multipolar world.

Schwab said: "A few years ago, we considered some technologies a science fiction that was difficult to implement, but today it has become a reality that we live through artificial intelligence, new space technology, and industrial biology, which heralds a major change coming during the next ten years, and requires governments to be ambitious in their decisions."

For her part, the director general of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, urged member states to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian aid to crisis-stricken countries and disaster zones to speed the recovery of impacted countries.

Okonjo-Iweala explained that the organization highlighted the importance of accelerating support operations for countries affected by disasters and attributed the decline in trade to global economic shocks.

Concerning trade disputes between member states, Okonjo-Iweala said that 99 percent of the organization's members want to reform the dispute system, which will be accomplished in the future.



ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call for economic integration across Europe on Friday, arguing that intensifying global trade tensions and a growing technology gap with the United States create fresh urgency for action.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on most if not all imports and said Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades.
"The geopolitical environment has also become less favorable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world," Lagarde said in a speech, without directly referring to Trump.
"The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen."
While Europe has made some progress, EU members tend to water down most proposals to protect vested national interests to the detriment of the bloc as a whole, Reuters quoted Lagarde as saying.
But this is taking hundreds of billions if not trillions of euros out of the economy as households are holding 11.5 trillion euros in cash and deposits, and much of this is not making its way to the firms that need the funding.
"If EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to 8 trillion euros could be redirected into long-term, market-based investments – or a flow of around 350 billion euros annually," Lagarde said.
When the cash actually enters the capital market, it often stays within national borders or leaves for the US in hope of better returns, Lagarde added.
Europe therefore needs to reduce the cost of investing in capital markets and must make the regulatory regime easier for cash to flow to places where it is needed the most.
A solution might be to create an EU-wide regulatory regime on top of the 27 national rules and certain issuers could then opt into this framework.
"To bypass the cumbersome process of regulatory harmonization, we could envisage a 28th regime for issuers of securities," Lagarde said. "They would benefit from a unified corporate and securities law, facilitating cross-border placement, holding and settlement."
Still, that would not solve the problem that few innovative companies set up shop in Europe, partly due to the lack of funding. So Europe must make it easier for investment to flow into venture capital and for banks to fund startups, she said.