Dubai Economy has announced the launch of the ‘Young Economist Challenge,’ an innovative competition aimed at engaging students across universities in the UAE by providing them with the opportunity to directly contribute to economic development, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Through the contest Dubai Economy aims to achieve five strategic goals; further integrate the academia into economic development; empower young people to contribute to economic development; promote academic research on the economy; stimulate innovation and creativity, as well as recognise academic excellence and performance.

The first edition of the Challenge will be launched during the inaugural UAE Economic Forum, to be held under the theme ‘The UAE Enterprising Economy; Resilience, Growth & Prosperity’, at the Armani Hotel Dubai, 11-12 December 2019. Participants can register for the Challenge starting 27 November 2019 and teams nominated to attend the Forum will receive their registration cards on the 8^th of December. More information on the Challenge is available on the economicforum.ae website.

Mariam Al Afridi, Director of Government Communication at Dubai Economy, said: “The aim of the ‘Young Economist Challenge’ is to support academic institutions across the UAE to deepen knowledge on local economic issues among the student community and promote their participation in discussions on such issues as an enriching extracurricular activity. The Challenge provides a unique opportunity to students to gain first-hand experience in policy-making along with some of the most prominent decision-makers in the country. This will effectively ensure their knowledge will be put into action and practically applied even before their graduation. Since the youth represent a large segment of our society their views are critical in shaping and defining the economic future of the country.”

Teams participating in the Challenge will prepare session briefs and put forward their own policy recommendations based on the plenary and panel discussions at the UAE Economic Forum 2019. Student teams will actively participate in Forum deliberations by contextualizing and reporting on session discussions and policies proposed while being encouraged to propose their own innovative and creative policy proposals for each topic discussed. The teams will be mentored by their academic supervisors and policy briefs will be submitted for evaluation by a committee under the supervision of Dubai Economy. The best policy brief for each session will be announced and recognised in early 2020.

Academic institutions accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education can participate in the Challenge and participants must be senior year students in economics, business or related subjects. Every team should have at least two to four students and each institution can nominate one team only per session at the Forum. The final policy summaries must be submitted by Thursday, 26^th of December 2019.

The UAE Economic Forum builds on the success of the ‘UAE Economic Outlook Forum’ and the ‘Emirates Economic Planning Forum’ over the last six years, combining them into a single event this year. The event will be a showcase of the aspirations and future plans of all economic departments and the Ministry of Economy in the UAE.