Jeddah is hosting today the Khadija bint Khuwailid Businesswomen’s Forum. Chaired by Princess Adelah bint Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, the forum’s theme is “The Reality of Women’s Participation in National Development.” At Arab News, we are publishing the first ever Top 20 List of Saudi Women’s Businesses. The list is along the same lines as the Top 100 Saudi Businesses which we started publishing some 18 years ago.
Initially when the idea of the Top 100 was conceived by Arab News and floated to companies, marketers and advertisers, it was greeted — and treated — with skepticism. Even knowledgeable businessmen looked at it with suspicion and cynicism. Some thought that the authorities wanted us to publish the list so that profit figures listed by companies would reveal how much zakat had to be paid. Far-fetched as that may have been, there were dozens of other equally mysterious queries, remarks and suppositions. In any case, we carried on and the list became a regular Arab News publication, year after year.
The supplement gained respectability because we in Arab News held ourselves to a very high editorial standard. We also had a different theme each year. The increasing number of publicly-listed companies which by law had to publish their figures helped in making our list more detailed and accurate.
The publication of this Top 20 List of Saudi Women’s Businesses is something we are proud of. This will be the first of many. Over the past five years, the Kingdom has witnessed some very rapid economic changes and a number of women have played important roles in these changes. Of course, oil prices have helped create this new economic boom but more than that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has shown his personal determination to put Saudi Arabia firmly on the world economic map. In order to do this, it is clear to everybody that an atmosphere conducive to economic and social development is needed. Perhaps the quickest and most effective way to achieve our goals is through the combined entrepreneurship of both men and women.
Saudi men have traditionally been the entrepreneurs but our women are no longer standing in the shadows. They have stepped into the light and have become the backbone of society. We in the Kingdom are fortunate to have well-educated, financially powerful women. A society that encourages and allows such women to play a vital role in its development is a society that is bound to succeed. On the other hand, a society that restricts what its women can do and prevents them from using their natural talents, whether social or economic, is bound to fail. We don’t want to fail. Indeed, for many reasons, we cannot afford to and we must not.
We thought long and hard about publishing a list of women’s businesses and were inevitably led to team up with the Khadija bint Khuwailid Center for Businesswomen at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI). The determination of those we met there, their hard work, their aim to solve women’s business problems and increase the role of women in the Kingdom’s economy is commendable.
The going, however, has not been easy. From initially sending out forms which were returned either half filled out or with totally incorrect information to questions that had nothing to do with the project and what we feared was lack of cooperation — all these would have made many others give up.
But a start was made and now both Arab News and the Khadija bint Khuwailid Center for Businesswomen have decided there is no going back. At times we really had to plead with businesswomen to get the forms filled out. And yes, we told them it was a new venture but please help us. Many did — after we made personal calls. To all these women, we offer a salute. They have been brave in coming out in the open and setting a precedent.
This year’s list may not be totally accurate and it almost certainly does not include all the hidden businesses — yet it is a start. To the cynics, we say: “Wait for next year’s and the one after that and after that.”
While compiling the list and assembling the editorial content, we made some interesting discoveries. We found a divorced mother who started a small business and who is struggling for the capital to enable her business to survive. We discovered women of all ages who need start-up capital in order to turn their ideas into reality. We discovered the best resource any country can have — brain capital.
That to me is the greatest achievement. The two-day conference will highlight the empowerment of women and will help women network. It will thus provide a valuable platform for an exchange of ideas that will prove beneficial to the economic progress of our country, its men and — let us be frank — its women.
