Upon an invitation by His Majesty King Abdullah, the first preparatory meeting of the Dead Sea Institute convened in Amman on Saturday.



Chaired by His Majesty the King, the meeting was attended by a number of prominent public and private sector figures from different countries, including President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Costa Rica former president Jose Maria as well as senior officials from well-known international companies including Victor Chu, chairman of the First Eastern Investment Group in Hong Kong, and Beng Seng, chairman of Hotel Properties in Singapore.



The meeting was convened to enact the founding principles of establishing a forum for the private sector in emerging countries to interact and identify areas in order to share knowledge and experience from Latin America, through Africa, the Middle East and Asia.



The institute will be established as an independent and non-partisan organisation, committed to the highest standards of integrity, research, analysis and recommendation.



An internationally recognised board of trustees will be mandated with the comprehensive supervision of the practice of the institute and will ensure the independence and transparency of its operations.



It is expected that the institute's board of trustees will also include at a later stage Levy Maurice, chairman of the France-based Publicis, Lester Crown, director of Henry Crown, John Chambers, president of Cisco Systems, Peter Brabeck Letmathe, chairman of Nestle, and Michael Camdessus, former International Monetary Fund managing director.



The institute will also serve as the bridge between research and analysis on one hand and policy-making on the other and will help identify global trends in economics, trade, governance and cross-border cooperation.



Starting in the first half of 2006, it will organise an annual conference at the Dead Sea to bring together public and private sector authorities committed to promoting cooperation, trade, and investment.