By Hessa Al Sabousi and Jawaher Jamal
DUBAI — Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, Minister of State for Tolerance and President of Zayed University, welcomed Madame Christine Lagarde, Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), during her visit to Zayed University Dubai Campus on February 24, 2016, to discuss “Youth in the Arab World.”
Entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and photographer Anas Bukhash was the presenter of this event. Students, professors, press teams, Emirati influencers like Omar Al Busaidy – an entrepreneur and Emirati author – and other invited guests participated in the discussion.
Bukhash started the discussion by talking about a poll conducted on Twitter, which talked about the challenges and problems that youth are facing regarding jobs, entrepreneurship and the private sector.
Madame Lagarde encouraged the audience to always get further and better education, as well as embrace the private sector and entrepreneurship.
One of the questions that was asked by the audience was about how to embrace the private sector and enjoy entrepreneurship. Accordingly, Madame Lagarde talked briefly about her story in which she started as a young lawyer in a time where men were lawyers and women were merely their assistants. She worked 25 years in the private sector, then was eventually drafted to the public sector.
“Life is not about doing one thing and nothing else; it’s about being open to potential changes in the course of your life,” said Madame Lagarde.
Students were also encouraged to ask questions and get involved in the discussion. Lagarde welcomed questions from both females and males.
Al Busaidy added a comment to what Madame Lagarde was saying in which he talked about the role of IMF regarding the youth unemployment in the Arab world. He also asked about what the IMF is doing regarding the issue.
In answering this question, Madame Lagarde provided background information about the IMF. According to Lagarde, the IMF’s one key mission is to help with facilitating the financial stability of the world and to underline various components such as growth, trade, jobs and ultimately the prosperity of the economy.
There are three allocated activities for the IMF. The first is to provide a health check of each and every economy of the IMF member countries. The second is to lend to countries that are facing a major problem with their economy and cannot access finance from other sources. The last activity is to build capacity for economies by providing technical assistance and training in relation to what the IMF knows best.
One final question from the audience was about the role of the universities in promoting entrepreneurship.
In answer to the question, Lagarde shared her personal experience. “I am the daughter of professors, so I know from history and background a little bit of the academic world. I think it is critically important that the world of business, particularly that the World of SME’s and the world of academics, actually intersect.”
Lagarde was chosen by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund to serve as IMF Managing Director for a second five-year term starting July 5, 2016. Lagarde was born in Paris in 1956 and joined the French Government in June 2005 as the Minister for Foreign Trade. She was also the first woman to hold the position of Managing Director of the IMF.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 188 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty around the world.
This story was originally published on Feb. 25, 2016. It was re-uploaded on Dec. 28, 2020.
