DUBAI, 6 December 2006 — Top investment areas, risk management, and Arab markets were some of the issues discussed at yesterday’s “Top 10 Investment Ideas in the Arab World” session held during the Arab Strategy Forum.
Led by Maureen Miskovic, chairman of Eurasia Group, this session featured Jeffery Culpepper, managing director of Merrill Lynch International, and Iyad Duwaji, CEO of Shua’a Capital as keynote speakers.
Kicking off the meeting, Maureen Miscovik tackled the subject of risk management within financial institutions. She then highlighted the four functions that this exercise should fulfill: Identifying, measuring, managing and minimizing risk.
Miscovik then identified the two types of risks: market and operational — the first governed by the way stocks and portfolios react to market crisis, and the latter — a complex and broader area, needing more evaluation methodologies on how risk impacts businesses.
Iyad Duwaji followed by stressing how political instability could influence risk, which is especially evident in the Middle Eastern markets. He then pointed out that Gulf markets have managed to achieve stability in the face of these political fluctuations that govern the region.
“Gulf markets make up 70 percent of emerging markets and 3 percent of global markets,” stated Duwaji. Duwaji predicted the energy sector and its associated industries as top areas for investment in the Arab world, citing aluminum manufacturers as an example.
