A couple of articles this past week picked up on something like $200 billion Saudi money being relocated from investments in the US to European banks and institutions.

With confidence dropping rapidly in the preservation of international laws and conventions by those ramrodding the US government, these individuals have thought it perhaps wiser to shift their wealth and investment to a less volatile environment. With a reported $700 to $800 billion total fund of Arab money in the United States, more were expected to follow suit to protect and preserve their investments, with the prime beneficiaries being countries within Europe.

In the same paper I read the ever-increasing problem of unemployment here, particularly among the youth. Wouldn’t it be wiser to move a big chunk of that money back here to their country to revive a stagnant economy? Domestic economy would certainly pick up with an infusion of a sizable portion of that capital.

This capital would certainly create more jobs and opportunities if put to good use. Industries and factories could come up that would offer employment opportunities to those whiling away their time in frustration and despair. That kind of money could change the economic personality of this country from one living off borrowed technology to one perhaps capable of exporting it as well.

We have the manpower. We just need the capital spent astutely to keep up with the economic dynamism in this world. With industries mushrooming, we won’t need bureaucrats as much as we would need factory workers, and of those we have plenty sitting about idly. And they are perhaps no more idle than most of this $800 billion languishing in some coffers of multi-international banks and compounding interest.

While those countries holding these large deposits benefit as the money is used for investment and development, we sit here and hope. Diversify if you will, but start at home first. Let that money spur national growth and contribute substantially to the GDP.

Graduates of universities today would have something viable to sink all their training into. Those who chose technical fields would realize their ambitions were major concerns and industry to spring up, and not necessarily sponsored by the government. The government cannot employ every citizen. That role must be shared by those holding this vast amount of money overseas, much of which I may add that was earned here.

While other countries around the Gulf have begun to take stock and reinvest earnings in their own countries, we have for the most part chosen to take the safer route of overseas deposits. Think about it, even 10 percent of this money comes to a mind boggling $60 billion, a figure very close to our annual budget! How many jobs would that kind of money create in the market place?

An idle mind with an idle body have been likened to a devil’s workshop. Lets give those who want a chance an opportunity for a more rewarding existence.

— Tariq A. Al-Maeena, [email protected]

25 August 2002