Jeddah Forum: A step towards reforms

Lubna Al Olayan, the chief executive officer of the Olayan Financing Company,made history when she delivered the opening keynote address at the recent Jeddah Economic Forum.

Still, it was former US President Bill Clinton who stole the show as he raised a fundamental dilemma that has prevented genuine progress to date. Why was the opportunity left to an outsider?

Clinton relied on his well-known charm as he called for women to gain the right to drive in the kingdom. (For the record, women drove in Saudi Arabia, albeit outside of major cities, before the 1991 War for Kuwait. It was after a now famous organised drive by about 50 women that Riyadh issued a ban that is still in force).

The former President declared that if cars had been around during the time of the Prophet (PBUH), he "probably would have made Saudi Arabia the first automobile producing nation on earth and put his wife in charge of the business". While the comments drew applause, this was a tangential topic, worthy of a smile, but no more.

Far more serious economic and political dilemmas exist in Saudi Arabia and, to her credit, Al Olayan raised them for conference delegates to grapple with.

Saudi Arabia needs "to have a society based on merit, not gender or connections," she emphasised. The very able and very well connected CEO highlighted the wealth that women can bring to the private sector and lamented how underused their talent remained. She called on the Saudi business community to harvest their skills if their objective was to add value to society.

In a powerful expose in front of 1,800 delegates, Al Olayan accented what kind of an economy the kingdom should have, one that would run on "talent and merit, not connections and family." She stressed that such a system would be in place once the business culture evolves.

"If we want Saudi Arabia to progress, we have no choice but to embrace change," she added. Clinton too wondered how a modern economy could be built if women, that represented half of the population, were excluded from participation.

All agreed that since it was impossible for the State to provide full employment, emphasis must be placed on the private sector. Towards that end, Al Olayan called for a change of mentality, pleading that Saudis who have "adopted the attitude that the government will always provide for, take care of, and shield us," must change their thinking.

As incentives to the Saudi business community, Al Olayan called for a complete overhaul of economic policy, in at least eight specific areas.

Regulations

To speed up the privatisation process, increase transparency and accountability, strengthen the legal process that ushers in clear and consistent regulations, enforce regulations clearly and transparently, provide more incentives for career opportunities, avoid protectionist labour market policies, abandon the philosophy of progress without change, and focus on human resources.

Al Olayan also urged the private sector to lead by example in implementing Saudisation, providing training and hiring women. She urged private sector business folks to become good corporate citizens with a sense of social responsibility.

Fundamental reforms are coming to Saudi Arabia but the struggle is not a "tug-of-war" between "an old order and a new world," as Bill Clinton described it, but in broadening real political and economic reforms without compromising faith and culture. In fact, senior Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, are committed to reforms and are eagerly pursuing such policies.

Yet a high-ranking Saudi official did not provide the answers to Clinton's cartography. Rather, it fell to Queen Rania of Jordan, an able Arab woman, to identify the root cause of what ailed Arab and Muslim societies today. What we have, Queen Rania said, is "a culture of expectation". What we need, she underlined, is "a culture of participation".

It is "only with the organised support of independent civic groups that governments can get enough public support to make difficult reforms a genuine reality," she stressed.

While Al Olayan was courageous to list key technical cha-nges, Queen Rania challenged the business community to plough some of its profits to "persuade". Her bold call to "channel power throughout society," by allowing ordinary folks to organise, would surely empower both men and women.

Joseph Kéchichian, author of several books, is an analyst on Gulf and Middle East affairs.