JEDDAH: The Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) will be held in April this year after the minister of commerce and industry, Abdullah Zainal Alireza, gave his approval to the event after organizers postponed it last month.
An informed source at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) confirmed that it had received the minister’s approval for holding the forum in two months, but did not give an exact date for the three-day event.
Al-Madinah Arabic daily said the minister had also approved a list of international speakers, including politicians and economists. The approval will facilitate the issuance of visas for foreign delegates attending the event, the paper said.
Sami Bahrawi, a member of the JCCI’s board of directors who is in charge of the forum, said on Wednesday that the forum could be held in April. He said he would remain head of the JEF’s organizing team along with other members.
Bahrawi said the forum would appear in a new form, taking into consideration all previous observations. “We are now expediting preparations to hold the forum within two months,” Bahrawi said, adding that it would be titled “Future by Design.”
The participants will discuss a number of important topics in 18 working papers. The forum will focus on the dynamic role of the private sector in boosting world economies and how it represents 89 percent of the free economies.
Bahrawi blamed “organizational excesses” for the cancellation of the forum in January 2009. “We had already received SR20 million worth of advertisements from various companies,” he said, adding that the advertisers have not backed out.
JCCI Secretary-General Mustafa Sabri said the forum was postponed for not receiving a license from authorities. “As soon as we get the license, we will go ahead with the JEF,” he said, adding that there were no other problems coming in the way of staging the “much awaited and prestigious” event.
The JEF began nine years ago, and has attracted prominent speakers from more than 160 countries. These include 18 heads of state including former US presidents George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton, former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Nobel laureate Professor Mohammed Younus.
During the past nine years, the JEF attracted 20,000 delegates, 450 speakers and 200 sponsoring companies. The delegates attending the forum are just as diversified and represent the leaders of public and private organizations operating in the local, regional, and global economies.