The five-day long Culture Summit 2017 held at Manarat Al Saadiyat, the Cultural District of Abu Dhabi, under the theme, "The Creative Mind of the Connected World: Culture as a Change Agent in the Digital Age," concluded on Thursday, with an emphasis on influential role of culture and arts in tackling socioeconomic and political challenges.

The summit witnessed the participation of over 300 personalities from the cultural and creative leadership, representing government, artistic, heritage, educational, scientific, technical and charity work sectors from all over the world, who discussed joint cultural work and the means of establishing solid co-operative relations to face current social and political challenges.

The summit’s activities included organising a series of workshops to discuss the challenges and issues highlighted in its sessions. These workshops emphasised the cultural diversity, represented in their participants and topics of discussion which offered a wider and more inclusive vision for the summit.

Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, said, "Abu Dhabi today has become the perfect place for the meeting of cultural leaders from over 80 countries from around the world, as it is home to over 180 nationalities, representing its social and cultural fabric."

David J. Rothkopf, Co-ordinator of the Summit and CEO and Editor of the FP Group, said, "This summit placed ambitious goals, and undoubtedly its success is due to our partners who all contributed. We managed, through this summit, to establish and form new cultural relations, and committed to the use of an exceptional innovative style to respond to some of the important challenges faced by our planet. With this commitment, they confirmed that culture is most influential in our world and has continuous energy, and is capable of changing thoughts and pushing societies towards active work."

Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs and Chairwoman of twofour54 Abu Dhabi Media Zone Authority, said that Culture Summit 2017 contributed to finding new concepts in dealing with international issues and strengthened the stature of the UAE in general and Abu Dhabi specifically, as a global centre for the meeting of thoughts and the innovation of practical solutions to the many challenges that delay the arrival of a civilised humanitarian society where individuals can live in happiness, security and peace.