THE Jeddah Economic Forum, the latest session of which ended on Monday, has, in its way, become something of a paradigm for the Saudi economy itself. The forum began seven years ago managed by outsiders and had a score of sessions with only 30 speakers. This year, the three-day event was run entirely by Saudis with 42 sessions and 130 speakers. The more than 2,000 delegates so filled the 12 conference rooms of the Jeddah Hilton that the city’s Chamber of Commerce is looking to find an even bigger venue for next year’s forum.
In common with the size of forum itself, the nature of the issues discussed has grown with the ambitions and achievements of the Kingdom’s economy. The major theme this year was the continuing diversification away from reliance on oil and the creation of a global industrial economy that will attract strategic and business investors. It was also rightly emphasized that this growth had to be sustainable in both economic and environmental terms.
The vast new King Abdullah Economic City, valued at SR100 billion, the world’s largest single civil engineering contract, is ample evidence of the determination to diversify. Slated to create half-a-million new jobs, it is the jewel in the crown of the new five-year plan. The project clearly drew considerable admiration from overseas delegates. That foreign investment is taking off with Saudi Arabia’s membership of the World Trade Organization is now highly apparent. In the first half of last year. over $17 billion flowed into the Kingdom, compared with just $1 billion for the same period in 2004. Distinguished speakers from around the world — presidents, past presidents, international leaders and businessmen — all praised what was happening. Some of them urged the reinforcement of capital market growth with privatizations.
As with all successful conferences, the Forum saw a great deal of networking away from the meeting halls. For many businessmen and investors, such one-to-one meetings often sow the seeds of future deals. However, the conference theme “Seeding Potentials for Economic Growth — Honoring Identity and Celebrating Common Grounds” recognized that there was more than mere money to transforming the Kingdom into a global economic presence. Saudi Arabia is no longer merely an energy superpower; with its WTO accession, the country is now a full player in the global economy. It needs to honor the identity of others, just as others must honor the Kingdom’s identity.
The most telling reminder of this was the appearance at the Forum of a young American woman, Sonia “Tita” Puopolo, whose mother died aboard one of the hijacked airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center. Puopolo said that hatred was destructive and that she had wanted to visit the Kingdom to see what Saudi Arabia was really like. She said that her impressions were overwhelmingly favorable and she had also met a Saudi whose uncle had died in the WTO outrage which had not been just an attack on America but on the whole world.
