DUBAI, 4 December 2005 — Foreign ideologies will not work in the Arab world, and reform in Arab countries should be generated from within the region after taking into consideration the contemporary needs of the society, according to Mohammed Al-Gergawi, chairman of the Young Arab Leaders (YAL) forum.

Gergawi, addressing a YAL meeting that was opened here by UAE Defense Minister Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al-Maktoum yesterday, said any external imposition of demands for change was not acceptable. “Imported ideologies don’t work for us,” he said. “We need new ideologies generated from within the Arab World. No exterior powers can tell us to change.” The meeting reviewed the role YAL can play in helping young Arabs overcome the lack of self-belief and sense of frustration that currently limit their potential.

Speakers included senior YAL officials as well as delegates from various countries where YAL has chapters. YAL Vice-Chairman Hakam Kanafani, chief executive officer of Palestine Cellular Communications said: “Arab youth feel that they can’t develop themselves.

This limits their thinking. We need to tell them that they have the ability and the means to develop their creative and scientific thinking.” YAL’s mentoring program is one of the initiatives that will provide encouragement and expertise for Arab entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into successful businesses. “Though we do not provide material support, we leverage our collective experience to evaluate and promote young people’s business ideas,” Kanafani said.

Mustafa Abdel Wadood, chief executive officer of EFG-Hermes, UAE, Egypt, told the meeting that YAL has created an extensive support network for young businessmen in the Arab World. “This is a serious initiative that is making an enormous positive impact among young people,” he added.

Maha Al-Ghunaim, vice chairperson and managing director of Global Investment House, Kuwait, said: “YAL can provide a tremendous impetus for raising the innovative capabilities of Arab youth. The initiatives undertaken by YAL’s Kuwait Chapter, for example, have focused on the need to encourage a spirit of creativity.” About 70 percent of YAL members are from the private sector and the rest from the government sector.

By next year, YAL hopes to have 600 members, 20 percent of them women. Eventually, the forum wants women to make up half its membership.