Politics has dominated previous meetings of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. The first annual meeting in Jordan in 2003 was billed a “summit of reconciliation,” coming as it did in the post-Iraq war period. Not this year. The current WEF gathering in the beach resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt is emphasizing economic, rather than political, performance.
Arab economies, like the region’s politics, need much more than the meandering resolutions of a three-day, highbrow quick-fix summit, even one attended by 1,300 assembled delegates from nearly 50 countries. For already, and indeed for several years, the Arab financial world has been playing catch-up. Arab economies attract less than one per cent of global foreign direct investments while inter-Arab trade cooperation is still in its infancy. Unemployment is growing, and the labor force in the Middle East and North Africa is expected to reach 200 million within two decades. Job creation will have to be more ambitious — in excess of 100 million new jobs between 2020-25. This is a huge challenge for policy-makers and the business community, one that cannot be met overnight by a here-today-gone-tomorrow summit.
In addition, the challenge is not just of bringing the region’s financial houses in order. However tightly the Sharm El Sheikh organizers sought to script the event, there was no avoiding political questions, not when the long-awaited Iraqi national unity government has just been formed. Or what it can and cannot do for its country. Or when the peace process has failed to get off the ground during the period since Hamas came to power. Or not when the specter of conflict with Iran is looming. In his inaugural address on Saturday, President Hosni Mubarak underlined what he saw as a double standard in US nuclear policy. He feels that Washington maintains a resolute silence about the nuclear arsenal of Israel while, at the same time, it conducts a campaign to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Nor did Mubarak mince words when he urged the Bush administration to work toward a world “that fosters multilateralism, abides by international legitimacy and steers away from unilateral actions,” a clear reference to American involvement in Iraq. In keeping with the forum’s priority goals and its optimistic theme — “The Promise of a New Generation” — the president hammered on the need for more equal economic and trade treatment for developing countries which he said had been forced to take on “significant burdens” to the advantage of the major economic powers.
Sharm El-Sheikh may yet provide some of the keys to economic development. The area certainly provides exceptionally beautiful scenery. The setting, known for its splendid beaches and vivid coral reefs, is truly stunning but can be innocently deceptive, so starkly does the sun clash with the possibly dark future.
It is a dark future awaiting the Arab world if the problems of providing economic security and job opportunities for the people of the region are not addressed quickly and properly.
