Bush says women must acquire full political and economic access— Heartened by Kuwait's decision to extend voting rights to women, Laura Bush, First Lady of the US, called for other Middle East countries to do the same. "Women who have not yet these rights are watching," she said, and "if the right to vote has any meaning, women must have the right to vote."
"Freedom, especially freedom for women, is more than the absence of oppression. Human rights require the rights of women and human rights are empty promises without human liberty," she said.
Mrs Bush placed particular emphasis on the role of education in building prosperous societies, and stressed the need to educate girls and women. "Too often girls are kept from school by custom, lack of resources and oppression," she said, and a mother's ability to read and write is important as her child's success is closely linked to hers.
She cited UNESCO's "staggering" illiteracy statistics for the Middle East - 75 million women and 45 million men are illiterate in the region.
Programme I Webcast I Session summaries I Speech (external site)
"Everybody wins" in regional commercial cooperation— Political will and commercial need are the two fundamental requirements for a successful cross-border project in the Middle East, said Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO, Mubadala Development Company, UAE. The current low level of cross-border cooperation in the region is due to a "stigma about large cross-border projects in the Middle East" and widespread scepticism about the chance of success of these projects, said Al Mubarak.
His own project, the Dolphin Project, was hailed as a "model" of Middle East co-operation as the region's first cross-border natural gas project. "Everybody is winning," he said of the stakeholders in the scheme and it is vital to include all stakeholders - shareholders, local contractors and the finance community.
Looking to the future, the increased world demand for energy presents a great challenge for the energy industry, said Nejib Zaafrani, Regional Vice-President, New Business Development, Middle East, Shell EP International Limited, UAE. To address the challenge of growth in oil production, he proposed a cross-border project over the next 30-50 years in which carbon dioxide molecules would be injected into oil reservoirs in order to recover a greater quantity of oil in the ME region. He said that 43 billion additional barrels of oil could be recovered by injecting carbon dioxide in US oil reservoirs.
The development implementation and operation of this type of integrated project across the states was pioneered in the US in the 1970-80s. The challenge to use it in other countries requires political will as well as regional and international cooperation.
Water and electricity projects were also mentioned as possibilites for cooperation.
Programme I Webcasts I Session summaries
May 20
Disconnect between rhetoric and reality obvious to investors—
Getting down to business in Gaza— To prepare for the aftermath of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, "something has to be done" to build up the infrastructure and develop Palestinian industries in what were previously industrial zones in Gaza, said Ehud Olmert, Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labour for Israel.
Egypt is open for business— "The winds of change are blowing in the right direction," said Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Mahmoud Nazif about economic reforms in his country.
Power to the people— Explaining the recent momentum towards democratization and reform in the Middle East, Elizabeth Cheney, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, said that we "can't deny the convergence of interests" between the international community and the Middle East.
Qurei underlines strategic goal of peace— Ahmed Qurei, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, declared his government's and people's committment to peace and reform.
Town Hall Meeting gauges views of Arab leaders— Over 700 of the region’s leaders participated in the Town Hall Meeting to focus on the top issues of concern for average citizens and to identify concrete action steps to address them. The exercise was to aid the region’s decision-makers to develop an action agenda that reflects the priorities of Arab leaders but addresses directly the concerns of the 
Change is welcome but "insufficiently rapid"— Introducing a note of caution to the general mood of optimism and positive expectation at the summit, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe of Nestlé questioned whether the recent political changes witnessed in the Middle East were "deep enough or fast enough". "It is not a question of whether a country or region changes but whether that change is sufficient to compete in the modern economy," he said, adding that this was also true for Europe.
Jordan challenges participants to be agents of change—
Iraqi Foreign Minister outlines steady democratic progress in Iraq—
