e-meet to address post-COVID challenges

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

Trends Research & Advisory, the Abu Dhabi-based independent research centre, is organising its first-ever e-Symposium on Tuesday to discuss the global impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and offer insights on the steps needed to mitigate its negative effects worldwide.

This will be the first online symposium of its kind to be organised since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the Gulf and Middle East region.

The e-Symposium titled, “Confronting the Challenges of COVID-19: A New Global Outlook” will provide a unique and innovative online platform for international experts covering medical, geostrategic and economic perspectives.

Panelists will offer insights on the factors behind the emergence of the crisis and will also include a special perspective on how China coped with the initial outbreak of the pandemic and adopted measures and solutions that could offer valuable lessons for other countries.

Dr Mohamed Al-Ali, Director General of Trends Research & Advisory, said that ideas and recommendations are needed to deal with the challenge of Covid-19, which has become an existential threat to humanity. He expressed his confidence that this international e-Symposium, the first of its kind in the Middle East, will come up with recommendations that enhance the current regional and international efforts to curb the rapid spread of this pandemic.

“The pandemic has so far claimed the lives of more than 25,000 people and infected more than 550,000, in addition to having a calamitous economic and strategic impact on the entire world. Millions of people are under forced social quarantine and over a billion are under curfew,” he said.

Dr Mohamed Al-Ali said that think-tanks and research institutes should play their role in supporting governments and countries in today’s circumstances so that we collectively stop this human tragedy by providing workable ideas, recommendations, and solutions.

“Harnessing modern technology to hold this e-Symposium will feed into the centre’s ambitious goals of strengthening scientific research and providing policy and decision-makers in the region and around the world,” he said.