That was the message from Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, speaking on Friday to more than 700 delegates at the second meeting of the Summit on the Global Agenda.

As his father, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, watched from the front row of the conference room, Shaikh Hamdan described some of the specific steps the UAE has taken to strengthen its own institutions.

Shaikh Hamdan told his audience that the government has developed laws to better regulate the country’s banks, foreign investment, governance, transparency and business practices. “We have also restructured a number of our companies and institutions to adapt to the emerging post-crisis world order…,” he said.

“We have supported investment in our infrastructure and completed giant projects on time. Simultaneously, we have maintained steadiness in realising our strategic plans, especially in the sectors of tourism, logistics, urban transport, new technology, renewable energy, and atomic energy for peaceful uses.”

The crisis demonstrated the failure of an elite club of industrialised nations to manage the economy effectively. Now, with optimism about a recovery rising, the world has an opportunity to examine the roots of the crisis and to try to fix flaws in the economic system, Shaikh Hamdan said in a brief but 
wide-ranging speech at the Opening Plenary of the Summit.

Participants in the three-day summit in Dubai hope to formulate possible policy reforms to protect the economy against any future meltdown.

The gathering of leaders from governments, business, academia and civil society was organised jointly by the Dubai government and the World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland.

“The crisis showed the failure of a small group of industrialised states to adequately manage the global economy; the crisis also demonstrated the dangers inherent in ignoring growing economies like China, India, Brazil and the Gulf Cooperation Council states…,” Shaikh Hamdan said in a speech.

“The crisis has also shown the dangers of marginalising government’s role in supervision of markets. The undermining of international financial institutions was another danger,” he said.

Shaikh Hamdan noted instances of greater international cooperation to address these problems.

For example, he said, G-7 group of 
advanced nations has yielded much of 
its authority to the more broad-based G-20, and governments are working closely with one another ahead of 
next month’s environmental summit in Copenhagen. 

“I fully realise that we do not live in world fully shaped by ideals. I also realise that an enhancement of international cooperation is often necessitated by crisis. I know that achieving 
true international cooperation requires the emergence of a new world order, which is not an easy feat,” Shaikh 
Hamdan said.

“But it is not possible to ignore reality indefinitely. It is not possible to ignore the magnitude of change in the centres of economic power. Nor is it possible to ignore the demographic balance and the consumption power in emerging countries. It is not possible to ignore the growing mutual dependence between east and west, north and south,” he said.