Doha, 21 June 2021 (AlJazeera News)

Qatar’s Emir has officially opened the Qatar Economic Forum 2021, which will focus on global leadership and strategies to support post-pandemic economic growth.

The three-day virtual event held in cooperation with Bloomberg under the slogan “New Horizons for Tomorrow” began on Monday and will bring together more than 100 world leaders, diplomats, academics and businessmen.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in his opening remarks that the inaugural event “represents a springboard for a series of forums aimed at enriching the dialogue on the global economy and proceeding to the next post-COVID-19 phase”.

He said that while the role of the state in tackling the coronavirus pandemic is “indispensable”, efforts must also include civil society and the business sector and must be coordinated globally.

The Emir also called on world leaders for increased cooperation to achieve a “just and comprehensive distribution of the vaccine in a manner that would pave the way for establishing an integrated global social and economic system in line with the sustainable global development goals to achieve wellbeing and stability to our peoples”.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Armenian President Armen Sarkissian are among the more than 100 speakers participating in the forum, which due to the pandemic will be held entirely via video conference.

The forum’s agenda is spread across six main themes, including “A Sustainable World”, which will explore the intersection of capitalism and the climate, and “Markets and Investment”, which will discuss the ability of investors to pursue growth opportunities that will help shape a more resilient global economy.

The conference will also host a global elite of more than 2,000 CEOs, inspirational figures and decision-makers in the fields of finance, economics, investment, technology, energy, education, sports and climate, who will work together to identify opportunities, provide solutions and rethink the global economic landscape from a Middle Eastern perspective.