RIYADH, 4 October 2004 — Suggestions that the Kingdom should use its economic clout against countries tolerating or encouraging hostile attitude toward this country came up for discussion on the second day of the international conference on “The image of Saudi Arabia in the world.”
Some participants said it was time to reach out to expatriates working in the Kingdom, since they could play an important role in correcting negative perceptions about Saudi Arabia once they returned home.
Representatives of Saudi Aramco and BAE Systems spoke on the role of their respective organizations in projecting the Kingdom in its proper perspective, while another line of thinking favored priming the mass media with the Arab point of view. The session was chaired by Dr. Fahd Al-Tayyash, associate professor of mass communications at King Saud University.
Setting the tone of the discussions at King Faisal Hall, Professor Grigori Kosach of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University, said Saudi Arabia’s image had been dented in the Russian media for its alleged support to the opposition in Chechnya.
Speaking in fluent Arabic, Grigori said there have been frequent reports in the Russian media citing Saudi charitable organizations for their “support to the opposition parties in Russia’s provincial republics, notably Chechnya and other Muslim-majority republics.”
It was also believed that the Muslim community remained isolated from the mainstream of sociopolitical life in those republics. The general impression was that such an isolationist tendency among the Muslims was the result of extremism that Islam preached. “It is also believed that Saudi Arabia is behind acts of terrorism in Chechnya.”
Earlier, Dr. Koo Hi Sen, a researcher in mass communications from Seoul, South Korea, underlined the importance of reaching out to the international community to explain the Saudi perspective on issues concerning the Kingdom. She said Koreans did not know much about the Kingdom, since their relations were confined mainly to trade.
Speaking on the role of the mass media in projecting a distorted image of Islam, Dr. Abdul Aziz Turkistani, consultant at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, said such an image was created by the pro-Israeli lobby which has been very active in the US.
Dr. Turkistani said it was imperative that the Kingdom should come up with a strategy for countering the hostile media campaign. In this context, he proposed an institutional arrangement whereby the Kingdom could get constant feedback on the public opinion through Saudi diplomatic missions abroad.
He stressed the importance of cultivating good relations with the mass media, particularly the BBC, whose support could be harnessed as part of an intensive PR campaign.
In another presentation, Dr. Towfiq Al-Swailem, economic consultant, Dar Al-Khaleej, and Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Mogoushi, assistant secretary-general at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce & Industry, spoke on the theme of using the Kingdom’s economic clout as part of an orchestrated drive against the anti-Saudi campaign.
Quoting statistics from a paper prepared by Dr. Al-Magoushi, Dr. Al-Swailem said the Kingdom has spent billions of dollars since 1975 in importing goods from abroad. Another factor was that an estimated $600-800 billion had been invested abroad, with 60 percent in the US markets, according to bankers. He argued that it was time “Saudi Arabia also speaks in the language that the West understands.”
Dr. Al-Swailem explained that economic pressure could be exerted through government channels especially when awarding contracts to countries.
In this context, he said the Kingdom could consider having China, Japan and India as strategic partners to keep up the pressure on the West. Citing figures, he said that of the Kingdom’s international trade, the US market share stands at $176 billion followed by Japan at $78 billion. He said an alliance with those three countries could be a strategic option if the Western countries do not mend their ways.
Hassan Al-Amri, president of the Arab Establishment for Research & Public Relations, spoke on the role of the private sector in bringing out publications that present the Arab perspective. He referred to the launch of the “Post 11th September” encyclopedia that explains the 9/11 events from the Arab point of view, especially the genesis of the American attitude toward the Arabs and the wave of Islamophobia as a growing phenomenon in that country.
Mustafa Jalahi of Saudi Aramco and Walid Abu Khaled of BAE Systems spoke on the role of their respective organizations in projecting a good image abroad at the corporate level. Jalahi said as a Saudi and yet international organization, Saudi Aramco was aware of the fact that it had to be careful in its dealings and corporate behavior.
Accordingly, his organization was printing 150,000 copies of their periodical for distribution in over 50 countries abroad, including the US.
Walid Abu Khaled, head of mass communications at BAE Systems Middle East, explained how the British defense company had employed Saudis in responsible positions as part of its corporate policy to build strong ties with the Kingdom.
