Premier Paula Cox is to introduce former President Bill Clinton at a major US/Mideast business conference next week.She will make the introductory remarks to Clinton’s keynote speech at the 2012 C3 Summit 2012 in New York on September 13 and 14.The event, which will examine all aspects of the Mideast business and financial opportunities, has attracted many leaders from Arab states who will join their counterparts in the US and abroad at New York’s Museum of Natural History auditorium.Premier Cox will serve as co-chair of the event.Ransel Potter, managing director of C3 International, said the mission of the Summit “was to examine, at the highest level, the business challenges and opportunities presented by the Middle East region as a whole to ensure that US and Arab business grow and prosper at a time of great change in the region”.Bermuda is to play a major role in many of the conference events including a panel that will present the ways in which the Island’s government and private sector are reaching out to the region to increase Shar’iah compliant and other forms of bilateral business from the Middle East.Premier Cox will address the conference before joining a panel that will include Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert, Chairman of the Bermuda Monetary Authority Jeremy Cox and director of Asset Management for PricewaterhouseCoopers Belaid Jheengoor. He will present highlights of a recent study conducted by PriceWaterhouse into the challenges and rewards of Bermuda’s Mideast business outreach.According to a C3 Summit statement, Clinton “headlines an outstanding group of speakers, many of the most prestigious business leaders, policymakers and educators from across the globe”.They include: Sanford Weill, previously chairman and chief executive of Citigroup and His Excellency Abdullah A Zainel Alireza, former Minister of Commerce and Industry of Saudi Arabia, who will offer practical advice on how others can succeed in growing their own business in the fast emerging Middle East markets.Commenting on the conference, Premier Cox noted Bermuda has already established considerable bilateral business and financial ties with the Arab business world and many local companies, having established their offices in the Gulf States, served as a natural gateway to the US and Western Hemisphere for Shari’ah compliant finance and insurance services.“We welcome the opportunity to join with the C3 Summit organisers in increasing commercial ties between Bermuda, the US and the Arab world,” she said.“The C3 Summit comes at a time of great change in the Middle East which will affect the ways in which the West will do business with these fast emerging and critical markets. This important conference is dedicated to examining these changes and suggesting ways that we and our Middle East colleagues can profit from change. We invite all those who do business in the Middle East to join President Clinton and ourselves at this timely event.”Premier Cox said Government was dedicated to positioning Bermuda to attract the best of the global financial services industry to the Island.“As Minister of Finance, I led a trade trip to Bahrain in 2010, a key element of an initiative to promote an engagement with the GCC region,” she said.“Then, and now, the Government’s priority is the issue of jobs and taking every opportunity to increase global business by increasing opportunities with broader international markets. In joining President Clinton in support of the C3 Summit and to progress our aim to further Bermuda as a Western hub to the Islamic financial services industry, we look to our discussions in New York and to inviting some of the important delegates to visit with us in Bermuda with a view to looking at potential joint ventures with our financial sector and tourism related opportunities.”Mr Potter added that among its many objectives, the C3 conference is dedicated to helping the region’s new governments form a strong civil democracy based on shared values. “We are delighted to have Bermuda join us in this endeavour in creating a global forum from both the West and the East to explore private sector growth and employment generation,” he said.“C3 and our Bermuda colleagues will encourage the region to open new opportunities on the commercial front to increase freer trade. In short, our joint aspiration is to encourage dialogue, explore opportunities and grow jobs to pave the path to increased progress for economic engagement between our two regions.”