Below the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Tradition and Arts Authority, inaugurated the tenth version of the Information Summit, the world’s main platform devoted for producing and making use of data within the service of sustainable growth.
Organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Information Basis (MBRF), in partnership with the United Nations Improvement Programme (UNDP), the Summit is being held on the Dubai World Commerce Centre and can proceed till 20 November. This yr’s version is held below the theme ‘Information Markets: Creating Sustainable Communities.’
Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed expressed her deep satisfaction within the Summit, which continues to strengthen its presence yr after yr, culminating on this version with a full decade of management and achievement. She affirmed that the sustained success of the Information Summit and its rising constructive impression replicate the dedication of those that lead its efforts.
Her Highness famous that the Summit has strengthened its place as a worldwide platform that brings collectively consultants, thought leaders, resolution makers, researchers and teachers below one roof. She mentioned the gathering fosters a wealthy dialogue that shapes new visions for growth and evokes revolutionary options to challenges that have an effect on the way forward for humanity, reinforcing Dubai’s position as a worldwide hub for data and innovation.
Her Highness mentioned: “Information is the muse upon which nations are constructed, and the engine that shapes their future. Our capability to change concepts, study from each other, and picture what lies forward is what allows us to create significant options that elevate human life. This Summit is a gathering of influential minds whose insights assist us navigate the urgent challenges of sustainable growth.”
She added: “Investing in data is an funding in folks, of their creativity, potential, and skill to form alternative. This version of the occasion stands as a testomony to Dubai’s and the UAE’s enduring dedication to nurturing future-ready communities geared up with the talents and instruments wanted to thrive in a quickly evolving world. We stay devoted to strengthening the position of data in constructing a dynamic economic system, empowering our youth with future abilities, and harnessing know-how and synthetic intelligence to advance sustainable growth. I look ahead to the Summit persevering with to encourage and deepen world conversations concerning the points defining our shared future.”
Throughout the occasion, Her Highness met with a number of ministers, dignitaries, and senior officers. The assembly underscored the significance of communication and the change of experience amongst leaders and decision-makers throughout establishments, that are important drivers of complete and sustainable growth.
In his speech on the launch ceremony, His Excellency Jamal bin Huwaireb, CEO of MBRF, mentioned that over the previous decade, the Information Summit has established a robust world standing and has turn into an annual gathering for inventive minds and decision-makers. He famous that the Summit has strengthened the position of data as a catalyst for human growth and making certain a affluent future for our nation and generations to come back.
He mentioned: “The Information Summit displays the imaginative and prescient of our management and is pushed by the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who believes that investing in data is probably the most precious funding in constructing nations and driving their progress. With this steady help, the Summit has expanded its attain throughout all continents, bringing collectively leaders, innovators, and consultants from internationally. It has turn into a beacon that shapes the longer term and develops sensible options to the challenges of sustainable growth, in a world the place transformations are accelerating and the worth of data continues to develop.”
HE Bin Huwaireb additional defined that this yr’s Summit, held below the theme ‘Information Markets: Creating Sustainable Communities’, opens new horizons for a renewed understanding of the knowledge-based economic system, by which concepts are reworked into developmental worth and data into productive vitality. This method contributes to reaching a diversified economic system and a future constructed on innovation and sustainability. He highlighted that the theme aligns with the UAE’s imaginative and prescient and future methods to create a complicated knowledge-based economic system and harness AI and cutting-edge applied sciences to serve humanity and improve the standard of life.
A world reference
Her Excellency Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-Common of UNCTAD, said: “Information is what permits humanity to rise past the circumstances into which we’re born. With out it, we inherit the world as it’s. The Information Summit has been constructed on the conviction that data drives progress. MBRF’s unwavering dedication to advancing the data motion throughout the Arab world and past is carefully aligned with the UAE’s efforts to construct a knowledge-based economic system. Information is a driving drive of human development. Reworking our visions into actuality requires greater than good intentions, because it calls for innovation, braveness, and perception in concepts that form a greater future. The Summit serves as a great platform the place completely different viewpoints and concepts coexist to encourage revolutionary options.”
Her Excellency added: “As frontier applied sciences broaden digital participation, round 2.6 billion folks stay offline. The Information Summit performs a significant position in making certain that data turns into a software of inclusion, enabling people to take part within the world economic system. Information helps us grasp complexity with out falling into assumptions, and markets require the seen hand of sound coverage and oversight to make sure that data interprets into growth, not simply business achieve. Along with UNDP, this Summit allows members to study, change insights, tackle challenges, and construct partnerships that equip them with the talents wanted to navigate transformations of our time.”
His Excellency Dr. Abdallah Al Dardari, UN Assistant Secretary-Common and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States, mentioned: “Information is now not confined to educational establishments or analysis services, because it has turn into a strategic asset that defines a rustic’s place within the new world order and opens unprecedented avenues for sustainable growth.”
His Excellency added that the tenth anniversary of the Information Summit will not be merely an occasion for celebration but additionally an event for reflection and renewed vitality. Dr. Al Dardari mentioned: “Now we have made vital strides in shaping societies able to creating data. Nevertheless, the trail in direction of societies that may additionally market and harness data to advertise shared prosperity, sustainability, and justice stays underway.”
Dr. Al Dardari continued: “Because the product of an unique collaboration between UNDP and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Information Basis, the International Information Index continues to function a benchmark for assessing data creation and its purposes in sustained growth. Greater than a knowledge repository, the Index performs a significant position in shaping coverage, supporting strategic imaginative and prescient, and helping international locations in remodeling data into precious human capital and adaptive public insurance policies that tackle technological, financial, and social transformation.”
The opening ceremony additionally featured the announcement of the outcomes of the ninth version of the International Information Index (GKI) 2025, with Switzerland rating first globally, adopted by Singapore in second place and Sweden in third. The UAE ranked first amongst Arab international locations, adopted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in second place and Qatar in third.
The importance of the International Information Index (GKI) has continued to develop, gaining a prestigious worldwide standing as a complete framework for assessing international locations’ data efficiency. This yr’s version of GKI contains six composite sectoral indices, protecting pre-university schooling, technical and vocational schooling and coaching (TVET), larger schooling, analysis, growth and innovation (RDI), info and communications know-how (ICT), the economic system, and the enabling atmosphere. It additionally launched vital methodology and statistical updates to enhance accuracy and comparability between international locations. These updates included the addition of a brand new vary of sub-indicators, the event of statistical weightings, and the mixing of latest standards to measure readiness for constructing knowledge-based societies and economies throughout numerous sectors, similar to schooling, analysis, growth and innovation, info know-how and the economic system, together with the atmosphere, society, and goo
The primary day of the Information Summit featured a variety of panel discussions, interactive dialogues, and workshops led by a distinguished group of outstanding specialists, consultants, teachers, and decision-makers from around the globe. These periods explored essential themes, together with data markets, the data economic system, innovation, sustainability, and group growth, in addition to know-how, schooling, the atmosphere, and data governance. It additionally explored the position of partnerships and investments in constructing built-in data ecosystems. It highlighted the impression of data change, concepts, and experiences in advancing societies and reaching complete, sustainable growth.