Business | Opinion
UK Prime Minister's message is correct
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown may be one of the few world leaders who recognises the magnitude of the current crisis, and knows very well that the Gulf's wealth needs to play a significant role.
- By Babu Das Augustine, Banking Editor
- Published: 23:20 November 7, 2008
If asked whether British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to UAE and the region last week was a success, I wouldn't have a single answer.
On a very personal front, it did cause some damage to me in that it almost resulted in domestic violence at my home.
On Tuesday I woke to a commotion in our living room. My daughter was sitting, weeping in the corner as my wife gave her a sermon on children's responsibilities. It wasn't so pleasant.
My six-year-old son sitting on the couch winked at me, and pointed at the ceiling. An arithmetic book was hanging from the ceiling fan.
Apparently, my daughter had unilaterally declared a holiday on Tuesday, and went easy on her arithmetic revision. When my wife discovered this "indiscretion", the book's gravity-defying potential was exploited.
My daughter arguably had a valid reason to avail of a holiday - when President Bush was in town a few months ago schools were shut down for the day.
I didn't venture to explain the disparity. Instead I declared a holiday for my children, much to my wife's chagrin.
Later in the day I saw Mr Brown's motorcade in front of the DIFC.
Though bereft of the usual pomp and traffic jams associated with such occasions, his interactions with the Gulf's political leadership last week seem to have had some impact, creating a consensus in the region that it needs to join the international efforts in containing a potential global contagion.
Brown proposes the addition of billions of dollars to the $250 billion (Dh918.3 billion) that the IMF already has at its disposal, drawn from currency reserves of countries, to bail out those nations that are under pressure because of the financial crisis.
This formula came even as a number of Western leaders started seeking the help of Gulf governments to tide over the crisis.
US Deputy Secretary of Treasury Robert Kimmit, on a trip to the Gulf a week ago said the US was looking for investments from the region's sovereign wealth funds.
'Quiet investors'
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in an interview to the Oxford Business Group, said the Gulf nations, flooded with surging oil revenues, have a historic opportunity to make investments in foreign countries, an indirect way of saying the same thing.
In a recent paper, Sven Behrend, an associate scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Centre, Beirut, said Arab investment managers need to adjust their strategies and take broader responsibility for the stability of the global financial markets.
"They can no longer play the role of quiet investors," he said.
At the same time, he also argues that Western governments should acknowledge the increased bargaining power of the Gulf countries, and reach out to them in a constructive manner.
The British prime minister seems to have fully grasped the value of such an argument.
And he may be one of the few world leaders who recognises the magnitude of the current crisis, and knows very well that the Gulf's wealth needs to play a significant role, and on a quid pro quo basis.
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