Dubai has announced plans to set up the first Arab Film Institute (AFI), a non-profit cultural association dedicated to celebrating and promoting regional film. Designed to bring together the most promising and brightest of Arab filmmakers under one roof, the AFI will be a unique meeting point between the art, technique and commerce involved in a prosperous film industry through learning, advocacy and networking.

A stroll around the UAE section at the recent World Travel Market (WTM) in London confirms the country’s tourism industry is in rude health. Every booth, table and VIP area of each opulent stand was occupied, with Emirati representatives in deep discussions with tourism professionals from all over the world. [...] While Dubai and, more recently Abu Dhabi, have both become firmly placed on the international tourism map, the country’s smaller emirates are also pushing to attract more overseas visitors, as evidenced by their presence at the WTM.

International and regional experts convened at The Economist’s Global Crisis of Obesity Summit in Dubai this week to discuss the need for a monumental shift in the way public and private sector organizations, and the wider society, approach the challenges presented by obesity, and resulting diseases including diabetes.

If six weeks in Paris during the European summer learning filmmaking from some of the greats of French cinema sounds like your kind of working holiday, you should probably keep your ear to the ground for the 2017 edition of the Femis Gulf Summer School. The programme – a partnership between The Embassy of France to the UAE and the Femis Film School in Paris – sends students from across the Gulf to Paris each summer for an intensive six-week course.

Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and the Chinese Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) signed an agreement to enable greater levels of collaboration in higher education and student exchange. [...] Degrees earned in Dubai will now be verified by the CSCSE and the Ministry of Education in China, assuring students thinking about studying in the city that their qualifications will be recognised in their homeland.

In what became one of this year’s most crucial announcements for global women’s economical empowerment, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, Chairperson of the NAMA, declared that NAMA will be organizing the first edition of Women Economic Empowerment Global Summit in Fall 2017, during a NAMA–UN Women roundtable held on the sidelines of the second day of ‘Investing in Future’ (IIFMENA) conference in Sharjah. 

entrepreneurial diplomacy also has the potential to counter global trends of rising xenophobia and isolationism by providing a powerful channel for young men and women to express themselves and connect through a shared passion for invention and creativity.