Yes, there is economic stability finally

Dubai: The current oil boom is helping fuel change and reform in the region rather than killing it, a panel of experts said yesterday at the Arab Strategy Forum.

Vahan Zanoyan, president and CEO of the US-based Petroleum Finance Company, who is usually pessimistic about change and reform in the region, said he has changed his views on the way oil money is currently being spent in the region.

Changes he believes are real and likely to last.

"I see economic sustainability," he said. "I see economic development issues, which I have never seen before."

Zanoyan says he also sees changes in how the region is developing its work force.

"This region is giving more than just lip service to education," he said. "I see a genuine interest in human resources. I see a material difference."

Lisa Anderson, dean of the school of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York, said part of the reason this oil boom is different from that of the 1970s and 1980s is that the region is learning from its past.

"Most of the lessons learned in the 1970s, which were not good lessons, will not be repeated," he said.

Mustafa K. Nabli, a chief economist and director for the World Bank, said that while changes are been made, the region still needs to improve in the areas of diversity, more education, and integration.

"The concessions about what needs to be done are the same," he said. "The agenda has not changed."

Nabli also said that government's willingness to promote a private sector has also fuelled reform. In the GCC, because of private sector's role, the private sector is making some reforms continue, he said.

In countries where the government still control the economy, where things are "socialist minded," the reforms have been less.

Zanoyan said that to him, government's willingness to delegate some responsibility to the private sector to help drive the economy is a very good sign.

"To me, this is the ultimate sign of transition," he said, "that ruling families will hand over control to technocrats to run the government."