GCF 2012. A focus on entrepreneurs.
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on January 24, 2012 • Leave your comment
www.gcf.org.sa
Entrepreneurship is the key to competitiveness, and it’s something every nation needs to think about. So it is entirely fitting that the Global Competitiveness Forum in Saudi Arabia is placing it at the center of its conference this year.
Bringing together a diverse range of high profile speakers from across the world, the three-day event will address the big issues that governments and businesses are facing. At the heart of it all, during this period of economic fragility, is job creation. We believe that the entrepreneurial spirit will be a part of this in the future.
The GCF is held in Riyadh and was created by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority in 2006 (HM King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz is its patron). It is an annual meeting of business leaders, politicians, intellectuals and journalists that aims to nurture dialogue on issues relating to local, regional and global economic and social development – currently the only event of its kind.
For many reasons, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a particularly apposite venue for this conversation. It is a leading country amongst Arab nations, and the largest country in the Gulf. Over the past five years it has shot up the global ladder, jumping from 67th place to 11th place in the World Bank/International Monetary Fund’s (WB/IMF) “Ease of Doing Business Report.”
In this context it’s no surprise that levels of foreign investment have improved. Read the rest of the article
A credit crisis for France?
by NYF Team on January 19, 2012 • 2 comments • Tagged as: credit rating, euro crisis, France, Nicolas Sarkozy, world economy
Image credit: Paris Descartes
It was unfortunate that so much had been pinned on France’s triple-A credit rating – not just president Sarkozy’s electoral future but that of the Eurozone more generally. Last week S&P downgraded the French rating to AA+, along with eight other European countries. Austria too lost its AAA status, Italy and Spain fell two notches and the ratings of Malta, Cyprus, Slovakia and Slovenia were cut. Unlucky Portugal had its debt consigned to junk status.
It’s bad news for Nicolas Sarkozy who is facing elections in a just few months. In a confession to advisors leaked to the media last year he said, “If France loses its AAA, I’m dead”.
But analysts have been wondering more broadly what this means for the Eurozone. Read the rest of the article
Qatar Looks to a Healthy, Sporty Future
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on January 13, 2012 • Leave your comment • Tagged as: development, Doha GOALS, economy, Middle East, Qatar, Sport
http://bit.ly/yLOiih
It’s a well known fact that exercise is vital to our mental and physical health. This is why the meeting of the Doha Pre-forum GOALS – Gathering of All Leaders in Sport — produced by Richard Attias and Associates, is putting sports at the heart of its agenda. On January 7-8 2012, fifty top policymakers, innovators, sports scientists, doctors, academics, NGO leaders, head of federations, and corporate executives met with in Doha at the Aspire Zone in Qatar, to discuss how sport could improve economies and society and the lives of women and people in cities.
As preparations gain speed for the FIFA World Cup in 2022, Qatar is transforming into a prime destination for sports. With the sophisticated facilities at the Aspire Zone Foundation, and the Aspire Academy — one of the world’s leading elite sports institutes — it is fast becoming a regional and international sporting hub. The Aspire Zone Foundation boasts some of the world’s finest sport stadia and venues. It came to international prominence through its successful staging of the 2006 Asian Games, and offers a unique sport, sports medicine, research and education destination for the international sports industry.
At the welcome ceremony on Saturday, Hassan Al-Thawadi, Chief Executive Officer of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, spoke about the importance of the 2022 soccer World Cup. “From the beginning of the bidding process we always viewed the FIFA World Cup Read the rest of the article
An Exciting Time For The Developing World
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on December 15, 2011 • Leave your comment • Tagged as: Alejandro Toledo, Dr. Cheick Modibo Diarra, education, frica Person of the Year, Lamido Sanusi, leadership, Mali, MEDays, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Wall Street
Lamido Sanusi, 2011 Forbes Africa Person of the Year Award
As I have mentioned before on this blog, one of the most pressing questions of our time is leadership – and the lack of it. Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion on this topic at the MEDays in Tangiers, which is organized by the Amadeus institute, one of Morocco’s most prominent independent think-tanks.
This year, the world has faced some big economic challenges. The world’s largest economy – the US – lost its triple-A rating, the Eurozone plunged into crisis, and citizens around the world began to protest against their governments. At the same time, Europe’s leaders have not yet found a solution to their problems, and in the US, politicians failed to produce a plan to deal with the deficit. In all of this turmoil, the developing world is starting to take a new role.
This point was highlighted by Alejandro Toledo, the former president of Peru, who noted that the crisis creates opportunities. Leadership is not just a matter for China, or Europe, or the United States, he said. “Africa, Latin America, and the Arab world, have leaders.”
Toledo’s own background provides a salutary tale about success in the face of adversity: Read the rest of the article
Emerging economies prosper as the west muddles through
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on November 30, 2011 • Leave your comment • Tagged as: Anthony Nightingale, Bill English, china, credit downgrades, Diane Brady, emerging economies, Kirill Dmitriev, New Zealand, Russian Direct Investment Fund, smart money
US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the APEC Leader's Meeting earlier this month
Right now, the smart money is sitting on the sidelines. This is what Diane Brady, senior editor and content chief of Bloomberg Businessweek, suggested at a panel discussion at APEC earlier this month. The other speakers didn’t entirely disagree, especially where Europe is concerned, but several suggested that the emerging markets are where smart money will be in the future.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of New Zealand, Bill English, suggested that his country was a barometer for broader currents because it has such a small economy. New Zealand has been badly hit by the global economic downturn and in September its credit rating was downgraded. English said the situation changed on a daily basis. “At the moment it’s quite schizophrenic,” he said. “There’s a lot of smart money sitting in safe banks – and it can’t stay there.”
In China, by contrast, things are looking good. Read the rest of the article
Obama at APEC: America is still welcome
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on November 25, 2011 • Leave your comment • Tagged as: APEC, Barack Obama, trade, US economy
Barack Obama at the APEC economic leaders' meeting. Image source: www.apec.org
That matter dispensed with he moved to weightier topics. Obama praised the outcomes that had been agreed on at the G20 summit earlier this month. “I was pleased to see that European leaders were taking seriously the need to solve not just the Greek crisis but also the broader European crisis,” he said.
Like other speakers at the APEC CEO summit he felt that the end is not quite in sight. “We’re not going to see massive growth in Europe till the problem is resolved. That will have a dampening effect on the overall economy.” But as long as the problems are contained, this presents an opportunity for growth for APEC. In a time when the rest of the world struggles, the Asia-Pacific region is more important to the US than ever before.
Read the rest of the article
A new role for China
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on November 21, 2011 • Leave your comment • Tagged as: APEC, china, Hu Jintao, sustainability
President Hu Jintao. Image source, www.apec.org
It’s no secret that China’s future looks brighter than that of other nations. Green energy, innovation, and a more prominent role in world politics will all be part of the picture, said President Hu Jintao at the APEC CEO summit last week. In a wide-ranging speech he surveyed the global landscape, touching on the environment, the world’s economy, and the internal problems that China faces.
Right now the most pressing concern for world leaders is to foster growth and stability. Mr. Hu noted that the financial crisis has changed the balance of power, which mechanisms of governance do not yet reflect. A more equal partnership is required than the one we have had till now, Mr. Hu said. “The emerging markets and developing countries are carrying greater weight in a global economy and playing a bigger role in global economic governance.”
Read the rest of the article
Seeking Stability in an Unstable World
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on November 14, 2011 • Leave your comment • Tagged as: America, china, Donald Tsang, Fan Gang, instability, Luis Alberto Moreno
Image credit: APEC CEO Summit
“In this connected world, we are all in the same boat. If part of the boat has a hole in it you cannot say afloat.” The words of the chief executive of Hong Kong SAR, Donald Tsang, spoken at the APEC CEO Summit, could be said to embody the preoccupations of APEC as a whole. However well the Asia-Pacific nations are faring, they are aware that no one is safe from the chilly winds of crisis in today’s economic world.
As Tsang observed, no one can do everything but everyone can do something. For Hong Kong this has meant shoring up its vulnerable areas and developing a regulatory framework that has enabled Hong Kong to place second in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index.
Yet overall Tsang was not upbeat. After a lifetime working in the financial industry he described himself as a pessimist. And because Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and America’s problems are far from being resolved he foresees further difficulties to come. “There’s a strong likelihood that things will go worse for the first quarter of the next year, even a mild recession,” he said. “I fear there will be slower growth and even negative growth among major economies in the world.” Read the rest of the article
Hillary Clinton: “Women must play a bigger role in the world’s economy”
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on November 12, 2011 • Leave your comment • Tagged as: Arab Spring, Hillary Clinton, human rights, women
Hillary Clinton addressing APEC on Friday
Any country or company that wants to succeed in today’s economy must unlock the power of women’s potential. This was the message of the far-reaching speech that Hillary Clinton delivered to a rapt audience at APEC on Friday.
A host of statistics support Clinton’s case. When women are empowered, a nation’s stability improves and democratic participation goes up. It’s proven that when women have access to jobs and opportunities the positive ripple effects spread. Women are more likely to invest their earnings in their children’s schooling, better housing, or in savings, than men. Over the last ten years the growth amassed by women’s activity has been higher than that of China. Economists estimate that women will control $15 trillion by 2014 and by 2028 women will control two thirds of consumer spending.
So investing in women is “not only the right thing to do,” Clinton said. “It’s clearly the smart thing as well.”
Yet obstacles continue to block women’s full economic participation. Read the rest of the article
The Future. Redefined.
by RIchard Attias and NYF Team on November 12, 2011 • Leave your comment • Tagged as: APEC, china, Dennis Nally, Eli Lilly, growth, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, PwC, Singapore
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore. Image source: Harvard Kennedy School
Michael Oreskes, a senior editor at the Associated Press, spends most of his time on the shores of the Atlantic but at APEC’s opening session today he said that being on the Pacific was a big relief. “The mood is so much better here.”
It was only partly a joke. In Europe and the US the euro crisis dominates, but at APEC the conversation is all about growth. PwC had conducted a survey of 300 CEOs before the APEC summit and their concerns reflected this change. Most of the CEOs thought APEC countries would be the main drivers of growth in the next three to five years, said Dennis Nally, PwC’s chairman.
As the balance of power shifts slowly east, the eyes of many are on China. Singapore’s premier, Lee Hsien Loong, said that China’s more local focus differs from that of the US. America is a hyperpower, its influence spread across regions. “I believe that America understands what a big stake it has in Asia. But you have interests all over the world,” he told Oreskes.
Internally China is facing problems of its own – a heated real estate market,disparities between rich and poor and massive urbanization. Its politicians are trying to move forward while ensuring that things don’t falls apart, but they are keeping an eye on the big picture. Read the rest of the article
