AMMAN, 29 May 2005 — Prominent economists and experts, who took part in plenary discussions at the World Economic Forum conference that was concluded at the eastern shore of the Dead Sea earlier this week, have detected far-reaching shortcomings in Arab competitiveness and infrastructure.

Panelists suggested that Arab governments faced the challenge of creating 100 million new jobs over the next 15-20 years across the Arab region for a burgeoning population.

Citing this year’s Arab Competitiveness Report, Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist and director, Global Competitiveness Program, the WEF, said the region’s countries as a whole were “lagging far behind most of the rest of the world, including other developing countries”.

He pointed to high level of unemployment, a low level of trade engagement with the rest of the world, very low growth rates, bureaucracy and red tape, lack of media freedom, which prevents the dissemination of information vital for decision-makers as well as the public.

He said human capital is very underdeveloped, as illustrated by the low quality of research institutions despite the oil revenues accruing to the region. Information technology and the Internet have low levels of penetration.

Participants were in agreement that the Arab world was lacking in infrastructure needed to cope with the world’s advancement.

“The challenges are sobering,” said Anthony Allum, chairman, Halcrow Group, United Kingdom. “Despite building the world’s largest man-made island, refineries, theme parks and financial centers, major infrastructure voids loom large and wide across the region.

Christiaan J. Poortman, vice-president, Middle East and North Africa region, World Bank, contended that the region can neither build nor sustain a base of “infrastructure hardware” without a foundation in “software of human hearts and minds” that surround infrastructure. “That requires strategic investments in capacity building which has been one of the biggest failures of the development approach”. “Too often we educate for the wrong jobs-to become civil servants — instead of skills that are useful to investors,” he added.

“On the surface it may not sound as exciting as other issues debated today,” said Brian C. Bruce, group chief executive, Murray & Roberts Holdings, South Africa, co-chair of the WEF meeting in Jordan. “But the region is fast learning that it cannot achieve its economic and political objectives” without the critical and decisive foundation: Infrastructure.