Davos: “Huge trade agreements are very time consuming and if we want to get results quicker it is better to have regional or even bilateral agreements,” Tareq Sultan of Kuwait-based Agility told Gulf News. “We do not care how it is done, but we want the agreements that favour trade, investment and growth”.

Sultan is Vice-Chairman and CEO of Agility, the Kuwait-based company that is one of the world’s largest integrated logistics providers with operations in more than 100 countries, revenues of close to around $5 billion and 25,000 employees.

“Trade agreements have to cover tariffs, but the non-tariff agreements are very important for easing the way we do business. These include matters like the procedures for clearing customs that may appear small but the business multiplier on such changes is far larger than getting lower tariffs,” said Sultan.

He attacked the way that trade agreements have been allowed appear as favouring the big multinationals. “The trade agreements do themselves a disservice because they downplay their real benefits to the SME sector, from where 9 out of 10 new jobs are created. The reality is that it is SMEs which are most sensitive to bureaucracy, and they lose that important multiplier if there is no agreement”.

Turning to China’s big impact on Davos this year, Sultan told Gulf News that “the heavy Chinese presence is a culmination of a 10 -year engagement with the World Economic Forum as China seeks to reach out to the international community.

“China is putting a lot of development onto its Silk Road plans which are part of its One Road One Belt strategy, as it seeks to help build a long-term strategy that will benefit its historic trading partners in a new way that will see Chain and its friends into the next century. China is investing in infrastructure, ports and railways as its works to facilitate trade along the Silk Road, to which end it is also talking with its partners about creating a customs union”.

Gulf and oil

Sultan saw the end of high oil prices as a necessary and welcome jolt to the Gulf governments and the need to reform their economies. “The low oil prices are helpful because they will encourage the systemic change and government need to act as though the price fall is permanent. We have to get used to the end of expensive oil and large government revenues,” he said.

“For example it is wrong that an average of 90 per cent of Gulf citizens are employed in the public sector. Government need to diminish its role in the economy and reorganise so that the private sector is able to play a stronger role”.

And Sultan was optimistic about the private sector’s ability to manage change. He gave the example of his own company where they are enthusiastically investing in what he calls “disruptive technology”.

“We have a technology advisory board that is a key part of our core business. We are investing in disruptive technology, which we see as absolutely at the heart of our development, and necessary to building any business advantage. A few years ago our competitors were DHL and FedEx, but today they are Amazon and Uber.

“For example we are looking at a hybrid technology that works on diminishing how our trucks consume fuel by up to 30 per cent. We are also looking new methods of handling at last-mile delivery, and order booking”.