JEDDAH, 27 February 2007 — In one of the new innovations at the Jeddah Economic Forum this year, electronic voting is being used to ask questions of the audience related to the topic being discussed. The results are almost instantaneously flashed on the wall in the main session hall, providing quick insight into the thinking of participants.
During the third session on “Social Responsibility and Citizenship Initiative” yesterday morning, participants were first asked whether a company’s social responsibility policy affected their buying decisions.
Forty percent said that it “always” affected their buying decisions, while 52 percent said that it “sometimes” did, and eight percent of the audience was honest enough to admit that it “never” affected their buying decisions.
The second and final question in this session asked was: Are Saudi companies doing enough training?
A whopping 78 percent said “No”, Saudi companies are not doing enough, while only eight percent said that they were, and 14 percent said that training was not the job of the private sector.
