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11/1/24, 3:19 PM Inaugural Global Conference on Economic Diversification 2024 explores policy options, pathways and challenges on its first day - M…
decision makers and prominent experts together to discuss challenges to economic
diversification and chart the way forward.”

Dr. Fadi Salem, Director of the Policy Research Department at MBRSG and co-chair of the

conference remarked that “the first edition of the conference has attracted extensive global
participation and welcomed more than 150 experts and participants from 30 countries and over
130 local, regional, and international organisations, including government and academic

institutions. Around 70 papers were submitted from academic institutions around the world and

reviewed by an international scientific committee of thought leaders and academic experts. A
total of 19 papers were accepted to be published by the MBRSG in the conference proceedings,
which will be made accessible to researchers and practitioners worldwide.”

The agenda for day one the conference included a series of panel discussions, roundtables, and

workshops. Following H.E. Alia Bint Abdulla Al Mazrouei’s speech, Prof. Cesar Hidalgo, Professor
of Behavioural Sciences at the Toulouse School of Economics and Co-author of the Economics

Complexity Index, delivered another keynote address on the links between economic
diversification and complexity.

Next on the schedule was a panel discussion titled ‘Economic Diversification Pathways in the
Gulf Region’ where prominent speakers discussed the strategies for economic diversification in

the revenue, trade, and output pillars, in light of efforts to diversify away from fossil fuel
dependence towards sustainable development.

The panel featured H.E. Tariq Rashid Al Suwaidi from the UAE Ministry of Economy; Dr. Al

Moatasim Al Yaaqubi, Executive Director of the National Programme for Economic
Diversification (Tanweea) in Oman; Dr. Jarmo Kotilaine, Chief Economist at Bahrain Economic

Development Board (EDB), and Dr. Vito Intini, Regional Chief Economist for the Arab States at
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Meanwhile, Dr. Khalid Al Wazani,
Professor of Economic and Public Policy at MBRSG, moderated the discussion.

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda, and former Minister

Investment in Egypt, then followed with a keynote address on ‘Financing Green Pathways to
Economic Diversification’.

The conference continued with an international organisations-focused panel discussion titled

‘Global Reflections on the Challenges of Economic Diversification’, which explored the role of
economic diversification in development amid a rapidly changing global landscape.

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