DUBAI, 16 December 2004 — The three-day Arab Strategy Forum concluded here yesterday after a review of the challenges facing the Arabs and what would be the situation in the Arab World 2020. The conference did not come out with any immediate recommendations or declarations, but participants agreed that it served as a useful forum for a critical review of the Arab situation, where and why the Arab World was lacking in various aspects of politics and economic development. Heard throughout the various sessions and workshops of the forum was the theme that political and economic reforms are vital to enable the Arab countries to meet the challenges posed by the fast-moving developments in the international scene, particularly by the accelerating process of globalization. However, such reforms should be homegrown, taking into consideration the ground realities of the concerned Arab country, and should not be imposed by external forces, according to the Arab and international decision makers, political activists and experts gathered at the forum.
They particularly rejected the US drive for reforms in the Arab World and clearly stated that Arabs would decide what is best for them, and that stability and security of the region which are vital for development were inevitably contingent on resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict in all its dimensions.
Dubai Crown Prince and UAE Defense Minister Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al-Maktoum warned Arab rulers that they risked losing power if they did not introduce wide-ranging reforms in their countries. “I say to my fellow Arabs in (power): if you do not change, you will be changed,” Sheikh Mohammed told the opening of the forum on Monday. “If you do not initiate radical changes to restore respect to public duties, uphold the principles of transparency, justice and responsibility, your peoples will resent you, and the verdict of history on you will be severe,” he told the gathering attended by top Arab decision makers and international experts. While former President Bill Clinton and several other speakers said the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had opened a window of opportunity to solve the Palestinian problem, Saudi Ambassador to the UK Prince Turki Al-Faisal said that there would not be peace in the region unless the US shifted its bias in favor of Israel.
Reviewed during the regular sessions and workshops held on the sidelines of the forum held under the theme “The Arab World in 2020,” were issues such as future of the Arab oil and gas industry and its international dimensions, political systems, reforms and development, Arab security, fighting terrorism, “clash of civilizations, alignment or conflict,” economics and politics, globalization of economies and business, the Iraq crisis, the Libyan experiment in liberalization, free trade, family businesses, the impact on the world of the Sept.11 attacks in the US, human development and education in the Arab World, the Arab labor market, and the “rise and fall of countries and corporations.”
There was almost unanimous opinion that the oil-producing Arab countries should seek to diversify their oil-based economies into industrial production, build funds to sustain themselves in a post-oil era, invest more in developing Arab human resources through well-charted education programs and market-oriented training programs. Above all in the economic sphere, said the participants, governments should shift focus from themselves to the private sector while retaining its role as a facilitator of economic development and growth.
Speakers after speakers referred to China and India as models that could be emulated by the Arabs in term of economic development, trade liberalization and adaptation of new technologies.
It was predicted that there would not be any “Arab tigers” emerging along the lines of the “Asian tigers” by the year 2020 before Arab countries are not moving ahead with reform and adaptation of new international realities at a pace that is required.