World Economic Forum: Business and political leaders gather to tackle impact of crisis

Dubai: The World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East formally starts Thursday, with high-level business and political leaders gathering at the Dead Sea in Jordan to tackle the impact of the global economic crises on the region.

The powerful and influential government and business delegations will be discussing "the implications of the global economic crises for the Middle East". The forum will also be looking at "home-grown strategies for success" developed by the countries of the region to deal with the fallout from the international crises.

While the WEF meeting is not a place decisions are made, important regional and international government and business leaders will be sharing their ideas and experiences as they try to find a way to restore economic growth.

"All great achievements start from small possibilities. In order to discover [these possibilities], we have no choice but to co-operate with each other, to share our resources and strengths and understand each other limitations. The WEF allows us to& share our insights to recover from the current global economic and financial crises, conflict resolution and to find solutions to our environment issues," said Chey Jae-won, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SK Holdings, Republic of Korea and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East.

While the forum will focus on the global crises and reigniting economic growth in the Middle East, it will also look at the science and technology agenda for the region - as innovation will be an important source of economic growth in future - as well as the use of "soft" power to resolve political conflicts, explains Sharif Al Diwani, WEF Director and Head of the Middle East and Arab Business Council.

The Chief Executive of AMEC in the United Kingdom and also a co-chair of the forum, Samir Brikho, highlighted the impact of the slump in international demand for oil and gas exports from the Middle East. This has resulted delays in investment in infrastructure and development projects in the region, as they are put on hold in the hope that the financial situation will improve.

But, he points out that: "What we are seeing is a correction of some of the things we used to complain about, like [a shortage of] manpower resources, expensive material, and even high inflation. [This correction] is good for the industry because we have a better base [from which] to grow.

He added: "Everybody knows the current energy prices are not going to stay so low for a long period of time and this is going to change in one, two, three years from now. [Then I] see a return to good business in the Middle East," he said.

Among the government ministers and business leaders from the UAE who will be attending the forum, will be a delegation from Dubai Holdings, which is a strategic partner of the World Economic Forum.

"This year has created unprecedented challenges for the global economy. In the Middle East the situation has been complicated by highly volatile energy markets and large-scale erosion of asset values. Nevertheless, we believe regional long-term sustainable growth is still possible," said Ahmad Bin Byat, CEO, Dubai Holding.