Today sees the start of what has become a significant annual event in the Kingdom’s calendar: the Jeddah Economic Forum. It is a meeting of major international significance which confirms the city’s status not merely as a national economic powerhouse, but as a regional, indeed global, center of business and finance.
It provides a meeting point — and more importantly the chance for a meeting of minds — between major world statesmen, leaders of international business and finance, Saudi political figures and the cream of the Saudi business community. In past years it has brought in the likes of former US President George Bush Sr., France’s former President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the UK’s former Prime Minister John Major, his former German counterpart Helmut Kohl, together with leaders of the international financial community, and — no less important — brilliant minds from the business and academic world whose ideas will shape the world of tomorrow. This year’s Forum includes former US President Bill Clinton, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman ibn Hamad Al-Khalifa, plus the heads of world oil companies and other key decision-makers, such as Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, Saleh Abdullah Kamel of the Dallah Group, and many others.
Pleasant though the climate is at this time of year, they are not here for a quick vacation, although the development of tourism is very much on the mind of both the government and the Jeddah authorities and is the subject of one of the sessions. They are here because there are matters to be voiced in Jeddah, ideas to be heard, visions to be shared. They are here to discuss issues of economic importance that have national, regional and international ramifications — and at a time of both global economic recession and grave political uncertainty.
They have been given an enormous amount to tax their minds. The subjects for discussion are varied and complex, from world economic integration to global energy policies. But there is one underlying issue throughout: these present unsettled times. That is to be expected. No economic forum worth its name could have avoided the subject. With several sessions on crisis management, this year’s event fully faces up to reality. By doing so, it provides at least the hope that answers to complex and worrying questions will be found.
But it is perhaps in who is coming rather than what is being discussed that, in present circumstances, the conference demonstrates its great prestige. There has been a perception, here and elsewhere, that Saudi Arabia was being deliberately punished by the US as a result of the events of Sept. 11. That may have been an overreaction, albeit an understandable one given the humiliation of several Saudi nationals in the US in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. American assurances that there was no such intention, that it wanted to maintain the best of relations with the Kingdom, now sound far more convincing with the presence of men like Bill Clinton and Neil Bush at the Forum.
Given the situation, their presence is heartening. It can be taken as a sign of the perhaps renewed importance with which America views the Arab world generally and Saudi Arabia specifically. It, therefore, gives hope for the future — not just on the economic front, but the political one as well.
