JEDDAH, 13 February 2006 — Irish President Mary McAleese yesterday urged Saudi Arabia to learn from Ireland’s economic transformation, which hinged on opening the country to the outside world and ushering women into the workplace.
“The first wife of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was herself a very successful businesswoman,” McAleese noted, winning a standing ovation from some sections of the audience on the second day of the 7th annual Jeddah Economic Forum at the Hilton Hotel.
McAleese said Ireland transformed itself into a single generation from an impoverished farm economy where women were expected to give up their jobs after marrying, to the world’s third-most unregulated economy after Hong Kong and Singapore.
McAleese, a former law professor and vice-chancellor of Queen’s University in Belfast, has been an attorney, journalist and scholar and is considered to be an inspiring role model for women and a fierce champion for peace. As an experienced journalist, she has a longstanding interest in many issues concerned with justice, equality, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation. The theme of her presidency is “Building bridges.”
Delivering her keynote address on “When everybody grows, everybody wins,” at one of the plenary sessions, she explored the theme drawing upon the experience of the economic transformation of Ireland over the past decade. She recalled her country’s own growth and traced the relationship between the two countries. Amr Enany, chairman of the JEC and vice chairman of the Enany Group, was the moderator.
This year’s forum, called “Seeding Potentials for Economic Growth”, gave the president an opportunity to highlight Ireland’s relations with the Kingdom.
She spent much of her speech focusing on an inclusive approach to the economy and warning how economic success and social inclusiveness are inextricably linked.
Noting that there are more than 1,500 Irish people in Saudi Arabia working as doctors, nurses, engineers, technicians and managers, she said both countries could learn a lot from each other.
“Ireland’s per capita gross national product today has risen to 30,000 euros and it has achieved full employment,” she said recalling the days some decades ago when conservatism and protectionism restricted its economic growth. Such economic policies in the 1930s initially proved advantageous as the domestic industry developed, but over the years the country did not make much progress due to the lack of overseas know-how and technologies, and foreign direct investment, she added.
“Today, no country can live in isolation. Every country has to share one or the other resource of another country. Today, people live in each other’s shadow. In fact, we need to interact with each other,” she said. “However, each country is unique and has its culture. You can globalize and interact with other countries without compromising your uniqueness and culture,” she said.
She elaborated how her country has achieved high levels of economy and prosperity as it has been realizing the advantages of globalization whose seeds were planted many years ago. “We’re one of the most globalized countries in the world. Our policy of openness has been instrumental in attracting international trade, business and companies. Today, we have the entire European Union of 456 million people focused as our market,” she said. “Our country could achieve all this due to its policy of offering free education to all regardless gender, class and religion. In 1990s, we made access to even third level free.”
Later, talking to reporters, the president condemned the publication of blasphemous Danish cartoons, which have given rise to violent protests throughout the Islamic world.
She said that Ireland abhorred the publication of the cartoons, which had been designed to provoke, to be rude and to inflame.
She said the Muslim community in Ireland shared with the Irish community an equal abhorrence at the use of violent protest.