Friday 17th June 2011
DRG 1st briefing by JEG
The massive formal portals of the Putrajaya International Convention Centre in Malaysia present an impressive yet very different entry point to the type of environment the Smart Partners' Global Dialogue is used to - but it's a contrast that brings a major opportunity as well as a challenge.
This world-class convention centre in Malaysia's purpose-built administrative centre is already sparking new ideas and approaches that promise to maximise the potential benefits the 2011 Global Dialogue can deliver. Today final pre-Dialogue discussions between teams of organisers from the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led by HE Selwyn Das, Deputy Secretary-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the worldwide Smart Partnership movement effectively linked minds and ambitions. With Smart Partners arriving in the past few hours from nations ranging between Namibia, Barbados, Australia and Zimbabwe, ideas and initiatives far outweighed the effects of jetlag. Young Smart Partners in particular are playing a central role. For example, Wilfred Mdluli off Swaziland - a global award winner for his recent work on innovative recycling initiatives - is one of many younger Smart Partners set to energise this year's activities.
Today's discussions have focused-in sharply on opportunities this coming Monday, when Smart Partners will be able to visit and interrogate key leaders of five industrial sectors in which Malaysia is delivering economic transformation and effective commercialisation of the country's prime resources. Tan Sri Datuk Dr Omar Abdul Rahman, Chairman of CPTM, emphasised the value these in-the-field activities can inject to the Dialogue, particularly in terms of Smart Partners' own countries worldwide gaining benefits by identifying and developing their own key factors for transformation. While contractors work diligently to build the physical fabric of this year's Global Dialogue, the as yet behind-the-scenes work of our Malaysian hosts and of Smart Partners from throughout the Commonwealth and beyond is creating the opportunity to inspire fresh and far-reaching Smart Partnership approaches for the leaders of today - and the leaders of the future. Please follow the link for glimpses of today's events....