JEDDAH, 14 October 2006 — The eighth Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Jeddah from Feb. 24 to 27.
New JEF Chairman Sami Fouad Bahrawi plans to reshape the annual event and give it a sharper focus. It will concentrate on a narrower range of topics, designed to demonstrate the Kingdom’s economic development and attract more foreign investment. “The Jeddah Economic Forum is the premiere and cutting-edge annual event that has steadily grown in size and status,” Bahrawi said in a media statement yesterday. “It’s my privilege to build on the success of previous years, but it is also time to implement some important changes that will refocus the forum’s agenda,” he said, adding that JEF 2007 will be more incisive in tackling the main issues we face today. “We’ll also take a more pro-active stance by proposing resolutions that can be positively adopted in the Kingdom,” said Bahrawi who heads the Bahrawi Trading Company as general manager and is a board member of a number of other companies. He was elected a board member of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2005. He graduated in business administration from King Abdul Aziz University and holds an MBA from the US-based George Washington University.
Being held with the support of Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, Bahrawi will retain JEF’s established corporate policy but envisage a new look to the event.
“We’ll move forward in 2007 to enhance the forum’s position as a platform for discussion of economic issues, but at the same time return to one of JEF’s original aims by giving attention to global matters that concern the whole region. JEF 2007 will showcase Jeddah and the Kingdom as a whole to the world.”
Speaking about the event’s theme “Economic reform: Flourishing grounds and expanding horizons,” Bahrawi said that the 2007 Forum would bring to light the latest trends in business and world economy. By highlighting “best practices” from around the globe on current issues facing Jeddah and the rest of the Kingdom, the forum will benchmark the developments and offer new ideas for attracting overseas investment.
Organized by Jeddah Marketing Board, a department of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the JEF is now seen as the most prestigious annual international event in the Middle East. It is expected to attract more than 2,000 delegates from around the world and will feature distinguished global leaders as speakers like in the previous years.