Kudos for Dubai, UAE

Kaspar Villiger, Swiss Finance Minister and the Chairman of the Annual Meetings, was all praise for the organisers for their excellent planning. "I would like to thank the authorities of Dubai and the UAE for hosting our meetings this year. Whenever Switzerland would have to organise such an event, we would ask the authorities of Dubai to send their organisation and planning staff," Mr Villiger said.

Speaking to the Press in Dubai yesterday, James Wolfensohn, World Bank president, said: "Perhaps as important as anything, the ability for us to meet here in Dubai and project an image of this part of the world as not being just an area of conflict, but an area of growth and great potential is something that I will remember."

Expressing his deep satisfaction over the way the Annual Meetings were organised in Dubai, Horst Koehler, IMF Managing Director, said: "I very much liked and was comforted by the authorities' able organisation, I also think that Dubai and the UAE's approach to policy and how they see things is encouraging because their approach is that they rely on their own abilities and creativity."

Calling on the world to emulate the good spirit of Dubai and the UAE, he added: "They (people of UAE) are outward looking, they have ideas and they look forward. This is what I think is needed not just for the Arab World but for the whole world."