JEDDAH, 22 January 2004 — “Forum? What forum are you talking about?”
That was the reply I got when I spoke to a few people who were enjoying the beautiful weather earlier this week just a few meters in front of the Hilton Jeddah where the Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) was taking place.
Despite the presence of over 1,000 business leaders, influential personalities and the huge media campaign, Suliman Al-Madah, Hani Baflah and Samer Al-Naser did not have a clue about what was going on at the Hilton.
When asked what the forum meant to them as ordinary people, 24-year-old Samer said: “By God, I do not know what is going on over there. I can see a lot of people going in and out and we have noticed more security than usual but we don’t know why.”
Though he has been unemployed for the last two years, Samer wondered what impact the forum would have on his situation. “What will it do for us? Speaking for myself, I do not think it will do anything for us.”
Suliman commented: “Saudi businessmen come to such events and talk but we never see any results from them. For years they have said that the unemployment problem will be solved but we know that many young men still have no jobs.”
Hani, the third young man in the group, told me: “I have no comments about the forum because I do not know anything about it. Now please let us enjoy the great weather.”
The interesting conversation I had with these young men led me to investigate the matter with other people. They also felt that they were left out of the just-concluded event.
While lectures, speeches and seminars were going on at the Hilton, Naser Al-Abdaly, a young Saudi entrepreneur was sitting in his store, not involved in what was going on. He told me when I phoned him that he had a business to run and had no time to attend the forum which would not benefit him anyway as he was only a small businessmen.
“This forum benefits the big businessmen who dominate the Saudi market but small people like me have no chance. I know it is an educational and informative forum but believe me, it is only words on papers. They never implement the ideas we read about at the forum, especially those involving the challenges facing business in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
As I was saying goodbye to him, he said, “By the way, I saw the great speech by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. He really grabbed my attention and should have inspired us with how he managed to change Malaysia into a great business environment. We could really learn from him.”
