KUWAIT, May 2 (KUNA) -- The eighth Future Forum is an important event in which 30 countries including the G8, Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative (BMENA) countries are to take part, general coordinator of participant Kuwaiti civil society and business sector Salah Al-Ghazali stressed here Monday.
The eighth future forum, and its subsidiary workshops will be hosted by Kuwait next November under the co-headship of Kuwait and France, Al-Ghazali noted, adding that many recommendations will be issued by the forum and its workshops.
Further, Al-Ghazali, who is also chairman of Kuwait Transparency Society, said that "Kuwait's forum will be of paramount importance, and it will be influential," hoping that the forum recommendations will come to light, and that some of them will be actually fulfilled.
Al-Ghazali made the previous remark at a joint press conference held today at Kuwait Journalists Association (KJA) headquarters where he talked along with other speakers including Maha Al-Barjas, member of the Kuwaiti civil society and business sector, who is participating in the eighth Future Forum, and its first workshop which will be held here (May 45) under the theme of "gender equality." Al-Ghazali said that the Future Forum represents an extraordinary political phenomenon, and is one of the most important political gatherings which are held periodically in the Middle East region with the participation of governmental representatives from the Group 8, BMENA countries, besides the representatives of civil society and private sector.
He added that the Future Forum include G8 which is made up of France, Canada, US, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and UK, besides the BMENA Initiative countries which are made up of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Mauritania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.
The Future Forum mulls every year three social, economic and political themes with the topics of each theme being selected by the civil society organizations in coordination with the two states co-chairing the forum, Al-Ghazali pointed out.
He also made clear that the annual system provides for choosing one of the forum co-charing states from the BMENA countries group, and the other from the G8, while the foreign ministries in these countries are entrusted with running the forum's governmental track committee, but the non-governmental track committee is made up of the civil society institution and business sector from the co-chairing states.
Al-Ghazali added that there will be other civil society partners cooperating with the non-governmental track committee, and belonging to countries where regional workshops, and national forums will be held.
The first Future Forum was held in Morocco in 2004 under the co-chairmanship of Morocco and the US, the second forum was held in Bahrain in 2005 under the co-chairmanship of Bahrain and UK, the third forum was held in Jordan in 2006 under the co-chairmanship of Jordan and Russia, the fourth in Yemen in 2007 under the co-chairmanship of Yemen and Germany, the fifth in the United Arab Emirates in 2008 under the co-chairmanship of UAE and Japan, and the sixth in Morocco in 2009 under the co-chairmanship of Morocco and Italy, and the seventh in Qatar in 2010 under the co-chairmanship of Qatar and Canada. - Kuna