Young Global Leaders

AMMAN (JT) - Her Majesty Queen Rania on Thursday attended the opening session of the Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2007 and joined the Forum of Young Global Leaders (FYGL) in a discussion session at their annual summit.

The Inaugural Annual Meeting is organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF), in partnership with the Chinese government, with the aim of creating a powerful platform for interaction and cooperation between traditional and new actors, and East and West.

Jason Diaz from New York seems confident about the future. He's working on a scheme that allows people to pay with credit cards for taxi rides. He's also part of a charity involving 10,000 Big Apple cabs that helps maintain social order by calling police when accidents or crimes occur.

He's even more excited about being picked to take part in the third annual World Economic Forum-Young Global Leaders, which started yesterday in Dalian, a port city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province.

"[I hope] to learn and to meet people and hope to be inspired to do good things," Diaz said. "There are a lot of amazing people here. "We hope to do something together for the world," he said.

As a prelude to Switzerland's Davos forum, the summit saw about 230 bright young people from around the world gather to discuss the globe's biggest challenges - health, education, the environment, development and poverty. "Youth is where hope in the world's future lies," Dalian Mayor Xia Deren said. "Young, global  leaders are an active power that will shape the world.

Patricia Bettencourt, a managing partner in Do It, a company promoting corporate social responsibility in Mozambique's capital of Maputo, said she was impressed byher first trip to China. "I am surprised, because it is very modern. You see technology everywhere. It is nice and I enjoy it," she said.

More than 200 young leaders from various circles around the world are gathering in Dalian, a coastal city of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, to talk about future leadership at the Young Global Leaders (YGL) Summit unveiled on Tuesday.

Oung Chanthol, executive director of Cambodian Women's Crisis Center (CWCC), said that she would like to know different perspectives and acquaint different people while attending the summit. "It will be helpful to my work in helping women," she said.

At the third session of the YGL summit and the first held in China, the summit lasting from Tuesday to Saturday would host 230 young leaders in economic, political, cultural or social sectors from 61 countries and regions.

On the walls of the meeting room hung the paintings of ancient Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism Lao-tse, as well as the facial image of ancient general Guan Yu who has been revered by his loyalty. Copies of Chinese and foreign best-selling books like Jack Welch's Autobiography and Daodejing (the foundational scripture of Taoism) were lined on bookshelves.

Group discussion of the participants started from the books and led to their interpretation of leadership. Issues involving development, poverty, health, environment, education and security were also on the discussion list.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns will address the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders U.S. Policy Roundtable on Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 9:45 a.m. in the Department of State's East Auditorium. The event is hosted by Young Global Leaders and Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina Habib Powell in partnership with the World Economic Forum. Both remarks are OPEN for press coverage and begin at 9:45 a.m.