Biofuel craze and Mideast tension take centre stage

Sharm Al Shaikh: "The Middle East has a dire need to think creatively about the future, with aspiration and hope," said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, as he listed the many desperate challenges that the region faces.

"We have the danger of protective treaties. We have destabilisation in Lebanon and Iraq. We face the challenges of terror and weapons of mass destruction. We also have the Millennium Goals, tackling poverty, human rights and education, and organised crime.

"Any objective assessment will show that the Middle East is not doing well on these issues, and the international world has not supported them as needed," said Mubarak giving a bleak economic overview to the World Economic Forum here.

Mubarak also spoke strongly against the impact of farmers around the world rushing to cash in on the new high prices for biofuel, and its consequent impact in driving up food prices.

"The whole world faces a severe economic crisis with increases in energy costs and food prices, which affect the poor countries the most.

Food for machines

"Food has become a food for machines. Is it acceptable that crops are used as a biofuel?" he asked. "We need to re-evaluate the genuine cost of biofuel, to deal with the problem of food scarcity, which is already a great challenge for the poor, including the poor in the rich countries."

The Egyptian president spoke of the importance of getting peace in the region for any hope of improving the economic situation. "If we allow the aspirations of the people of the Middle East for peace to be achieved, we need the international climate to fulfill the promise to bring achieve peace stability and development."

This theme of dealing with the political issues was echoed by King Abdullah who spoke of the importance of overcoming the costs of regional conflict. "To make gains against the hurdles, the citizens of conflict areas must work far harder, rich far more, than those who live in peaceful regions". But Abdullah was basically optimistic about the long term prospects of the Middle East.

"The region is in an exceptional position to move forward. Rising global energy demand has brought abundant financial liquidity. These resources build on our region's other positive assets, a market place of 250 million people, a deep tradition of enterprise and a young population with high aspirations and global awareness

"Governments should do much to remove constraints to growth, invest in a competitive workforce and encourage new enterprise. Regional cooperation is also vital and to make it happen we need new linkages and agreements needed to build a true regional market".