Business & Money | Sunday 27 January, 2019 2:08 am |

The Misk Global Forum concluded its participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos where it held a series of seminars and discussions that saw the participation of young businessmen and leaders from around the world.

The first of these sessions was held on Tuesday, under the theme: "Skills for our future: Preparing for the unexpected", during which the key skills needed for growth in a rapidly changing world were discussed. It also tackled success in the future economy, ways to strengthen curricula and learning for young people in order to provide them with the best technical and social skills.

The second session, held on Wednesday, was entitled: "Better Citizens: Can We be All Leaders", during which youth-related themes and the most important skills and principles needed to be influential as global citizens during the era of globalization were discussed.

In the afternoon of the same day, an interactive session was held, in collaboration between Misk and First Peace, on helping young people create an impact on achieving sustainable development goals and enhancing the role of entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

On Thursday, a new opportunity for more constructive discussion focused on the development of a promising generation of successful entrepreneurs. It focused on analyzing the mentality and skills required for this goal and highlighting associated work ethics and showing how young people can build a strong support network that guides them.

A panel discussion was held on Friday, entitled: "Future Economics' Engineers: How Young People Shape a Better World", aimed at identifying the role of young people in the transformation of societies and economies. The session focused on ways to empower young people to get better jobs and how to prepare them for the future of work.

Speakers also discussed enhancing the effectiveness of youth energies and their ability to shape a new, more just and more inclusive globalization, where young people are the drivers - not the passengers - in the journey towards the future economy.

The World Economic Forum has shown that half of the world's population is under the age of 30, 90 percent of which are living in developing countries and 83 percent believe that they can change their situation and overcome problems they may face. Sixty-four percent said they value diversity and are ready for lifelong learning. More than two-thirds of the world's youth want to become entrepreneurs. 

Among major challenges addressed by the Misk Global Forum discussions in Davos were high intergenerational inequality and non-representation at the decision-making level, and the rate of one out of every five youth was not involved in education, employment and/or training.