The World Economic Forum on the Middle East concluded today with a call for accelerated political and economic reform to ensure that the region achieves its full potential.

It called for converting rising oil wealth into skilled human capital and turning the region’s disparities into entrepreneurial opportunities.

“We are very rich in this part of the world, but at the micro level we’re very poor - in terms of technology, innovation, creating social welfare and entrepreneurship,” said Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, chairman, Ithmaar Bank, Bahrain, and one of six co-chairs for the meeting, which was organised under the theme “Learning from the Future.” “We must act to make sure these young people can meet their aspirations.”

In line with that goal, the forum worked with the British Council to identify leaders from the region’s predominantly young population to share their aspirations and concerns with the more than 1,500 participants, including 12 heads of state/government, ministers, leading business figures, leaders from civil society and the media from over 60 countries who took part in the meeting.

“We want to see a Middle East of strategic importance, not because of conflict but because we have vibrant economies and political systems,” said Maher Bitar, a youth representative from Palestine.

Participants and panellists agreed that the 60-year-old conflict in Palestine remained an urgent concern and an impediment to regional stability. But they also concluded that the quest for a lasting agreement between Palestinians and Israelis should no longer be used as a pretext for rejecting change – either by extremists or by incumbent governments.

“Issues of peace and stability should not derail us from the fact that we need to plan our future,” said Ahmed Mahmoud Nazif, Prime Minister of Egypt.

Creating jobs for the region’s increasingly young population remains the top priority, participants said, but so does ensuring that the region’s young have the skills to take those jobs. In addition to investing in education and vocational training, therefore, participants called for the creation of an enabling political environment and a fundamental change in the relationship between Arab governments and their citizens.

The paternalistic patterns of the past need to give way to a more participatory system that will stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship, they said. “The relationship between government and people has to change,” said Amira Abdel-Aziz, a youth representative from Egypt. “We have to look at the people as the highest authority.”

The revolution in information technology is already changing the political balance. The rapid spread of cellular phones and satellite television has connected the Arab world to the global economy in a way that can no longer be reversed – nor should it be. The Arab world wants and needs to take its rightful place as a player in the global economy.

“It’s becoming costlier and costlier to engage in the kinds of suppression of information as we move into an information driven society,” said Jimmy Wales, founder and chair emeritus, Wikia, USA, and a co-chair of the meeting. “It’s important to recognise that those policies will continue to fail.”

But governments need to overhaul their very approach to policy-making. Many governments, for example, have responded to soaring food prices and rampant inflation with subsidies and price controls. Participants pointed to such measures as an example of a paternalistic style of government that needed to give way to a more democratic, free market form that draws upon the ingenuity and self-reliance of the Arab people rather than oil revenues.

In the same vein, participants said governments need to turn more of their economies over to citizens to manage as private businesses. “We have to reduce the public sector in terms of size,” said Abdulla-Janahi. It is overburdening all of us. We must privatise, even education.”  - TradeArabia News Service