The Global Competitiveness Forum ("GCF") is an annual meeting of top business executives, international political leaders, selected intellectuals, and academics who share an interest in global competitiveness. For the 2008 GCF, Saudi Arabia celebrated its new ranking in terms of "ease to do business" --rated as 23rd country worldwide and 1st in the Middle East and in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia has also greatly improved rankings by the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. In 2007, more than 500 of these key leaders participated in the first annual GCF which included a keynote address by Bill Gates of Microsoft. The event is held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia right before the Davos Economic Forum. In 2008 and under the patronage of HM King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, the forum gathered 1000 internationally recognized leaders. The program is designed to create a discussion platform for experts, corporate leaders, political leaders, NGOs, academics and other stakeholders. GCF Speakers included the following people: Prof. Laura Tyson Professor, Haas Business and Public Policy Group at the University of California Berkeley Mohamed Ali Alabbar Chairman of Emaar Properties PJSC James (Jim) F. Albaugh Executive Vice President, The Boeing Company President and Chief Executive Officer Integrated Defense Systems HE Amr Al-Dabbagh Governor & Chairman, SAGIA Khalid Al Gosaibi Minister of Economy and Planning, Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia HE Eng. Khalid Abdullah Almolhem <b>...</b>