By Courtesy Andy Mettler Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, speaking at the Annual Meeting 2005 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 26, 2005 News Focus Freeing Taxpayers The ruling NDP cut personal income and corporate taxes in half, but the emergency law is here to stay High Times Bankers expect higher interest rates to heat up the investment climate and cool inflation Mastering Law A new law program at the American University in Cairo seeks to get students serious about law Until the Cows Come Home Consumers are still waiting for Sudanese beef to hit the market AloAchoo! The next generation of viruses has hit mobile phones Star Power The 2004 Olympics created some unlikely national icons and a powerful lineup of marketing potential Below Par The World Bank says Egypt is handicapped by the high costs to start a business and the difficulty of firing people, to name a few Corporate Bonding Orascom Telecom and Telecom Egypt have made a splash in the bond market, but rising interest rates may damper enthusiasm Unmaking Monopolies Opposition MPs say changes to a proposed anti-trust law defy the purpose of the law by protecting monopolies On Topic The Euromoney conference put an exclamation point on the liberalization efforts of the government Investment Matchmakers Egypt Invest 2004 seeks to convince foreign investors that the country has finally turned a corner ’Dish’ing it Out Satellite TV stations are set to give the state-run channels a run for their advertising revenues during Ramadan Cargo Crunch As exporters complain about skyrocketing airfreight prices, the government seems to be turning an unsympathetic ear Star Power The 2004 Olympics created some unlikely national icons and a powerful lineup of marketing potential By Associated Press American actress and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has drawn an unusual amount of media attention to recent WEF meetings.

By Hadia Mostafa

Under the theme, ‘the Promise of a New Generation,’ the World Economic Forum (WEF) will hold its next Middle East meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh on May 20-22, 2006. Preparations for the landmark gathering began last October, when Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid and Andre Schneider, managing director and CEO of the forum, signed a memorandum of understanding at a meeting of high-profile business leaders and Cabinet ministers in Cairo, moving the forum from Jordan to Egypt.

For three consecutive years, the WEF had been meeting in Jordan’s Dead Sea region. The move to Sharm El-Sheikh was a coup for an Egyptian government that is anxious to showcase its economic reform agenda.

It is not, however, the first time the WEF has come to Egypt: The regional meeting was held in Cairo in 1996.

“This World Economic Forum on the Middle East is an important milestone for Egypt. The decision to bring the Forum to Sharm El-Sheikh sends a clear signal: Egypt is open for business. We are serious about reform. We are determined to engage as an equal and active partner with our global peers. The international community believes in our commitment and is prepared to support Egypt as it strives for change,” Rachid said at the October signing ceremony.

According to Sherif El-Diwany, the forum’s director for Middle East and North Africa, it is WEF policy to change venues to correspond with changes in focus.

“Anytime we launch a new agenda, we like to go with a new location. Now that the spotlight has somewhat shifted off the political unrest in the region there is a focus on a broader agenda that brings business to center stage. Egypt’s economic reforms have been very impressive for the past five years, and as more young blood from the private sector moves into government, the pace of reform is picking up. Egypt is the ideal place to hold this next meeting,” says El-Diwany.

“‘The Promise of a New Generation’ does not only refer to the young. ‘New generation’ refers to the future of the region in general,” he adds, noting that there will be five principal sub-themes discussed in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The first and most dominant of the sub-themes will be the regional business agenda.

“In the aftermath of the oil boom, we need to look into how wealth and excess liquidity can best be invested to grow Arab economies,” says El-Diwany. “Arab businesses need to be able to compete globally. We can no longer say that our businesses are Kuwaiti, Saudi or Egyptian. We need to go regional and global, so we will be examining what it takes to achieve this and looking at the experiences of companies like Orascom, Emaar and Aramex, who have already gone global.”

Also on the agenda are topics such as leadership and how educational systems in the Arab world need to upgrade in order to keep up with the demand for better trained leaders. “We will also examine how to create a better infrastructure for trade and make international markets more accessible,” says El-Diwany.

Egypt will present its third Global Competitiveness Report at the meeting. The Egyptian National Competitiveness Council (ENCC) was launched by IMC director Helmy Abouleish in 2004, immediately after his return from his first WEF meeting in Davos, where he was named the Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year for Egypt.

“Of all the WEF publications, I was most impressed with their annual Global Competitiveness Report,” says Abouleish. “Sometimes we think that we have achieved a lot, but when we compare ourselves to the rest of the world we find that we still lag very far behind. It is important to have that global perspective on things in order to properly benchmark our progress.”

Four exclusive, high-level workshops whose participants will include Ministers and CEOs will take place on technological innovation, tourism in the Middle East, financial services and transportation and logistics.

Business topics will account for approximately 70% of all the discussions in Sharm El-Sheikh; four other sub-themes —the rule of law and democracy; the challenge of employment and migration; peace, security and international relations; and youth, culture and identity — will take up the remaining 30%.

“Obviously we can not talk about the Middle East without talking about peace, security and international relations,” says El-Diwany. He expects Hamas and the Israeli elections to be on the agenda, along with current developments in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. “There are still some big questions regarding global policy vis-a-vis a lot of these issues.

“And we will definitely be taking stock of what has happened with Arab democracy and the rise of [Islamist] parties in the past year,” adds El-Diwany.

The WEF has lined six co-chairs for the meeting, including Mohamed Al-Mahdy, CEO of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation; Shafik Gabr, chairman of Egypt’s Artoc Group; Stelios Haji-loannou, chairman of the UK’s EasyGroup; Nemir Kirdar, CEO of Britain’s InvestCorp; William Rhodes, CEO of Citibank; and John Swainson, CEO of Computer Associates.

While the delegate list was still not confirmed at press time, El-Diwany was very optimistic about the heads of state who have already signaled their intent to come: “From the Arab world, we will have King Abdallah from Jordan, the Prime Minister of Iraq, King Hassan of Morocco, the new Prime Minister of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas and the Prime Minister of Lebanon. From outside, we are expecting Tony Blair, Chancellor Merkel from Germany, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the President of Pakistan and at least six senators and congressmen and a high-level State Department representative from the US. Participation from the business side looks excellent as well,” says El-Diwany.

Whether Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who made a high-profile stop in Davos earlier this year, will attend is an open question.

“The World Economic Forum is to the global business community what the UN is to politicians, and we are very happy to be having it here in Egypt,” says Abouleish. “A few years back, there was a lot of antagonism against the forum. They were accused of being too elitist and not paying attention to the needs of society as whole. That’s when they began including people from outside the business world. They created the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and invited members of civil society — artists, cultural leaders and of course social entrepreneurs to participate,” he adds.

“We are very optimistic that Sharm El-Sheikh will be a great success,” Rachid told bt last month. “We are now receiving weekly updates about how the arrangements there are going. The new building that is being specially constructed to accommodate up to 1,500 forum participants is 90% complete and is looking fantastic, and the list of invitees that have started to confirm is impressive.

“We feel that this is a very unique opportunity for Egypt to make a positive impression on both global leaders and the international business community,” the minister concluded. bt