 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon here in the room and on the live stream and of course Welcome to our panelists here today. You're joining a press conference at the 47th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos just in case the very subtle branding in the back hasn't given it away yet From where we're we're sending life The topic of this press conference is Accelerating reforms in the Arab world I think everybody would agree that a lot of bad news came out of the region in recent times So it's good to hear something Constructive something forward-looking and that's what we're trying to do here today In order to do that. I'm joined by a wonderful panel of experts and strong voices from the region But first of all to my immediate left. I'm joined by Merrick Duzek Duzek who's the head of Middle East and North Africa and also a member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum right at the center of the panel We're joined by Imad Najib Fakuri who's the minister of planning and international cooperation of the Hashemid kingdom of Jordan and Last but definitely not least we have a strong private sector representative here with us today It's Majid Jafar who's the CEO of Crescent Petroleum based in the United Arab Emirates Thank you very much for being here Merrick, let me start by handing the floor over to you and then I'd like to invite you to share with us What is behind this accelerating reforms in the Arab world? But maybe first of all what is the World Economic Forum doing in the Middle East with public and private sector partners in the Middle East? Thank you. Thank you, Georg first, let me say that I think we're Working on the region at a very critical time very exciting time As you all know, there are a lot of Economic reform efforts in a number of countries in the region in Saudi Arabia in other Gulf countries in countries like Jordan Egypt Tunisia, and I think you have seen in many of the sessions here from the different protagonists About this momentum or you've heard from them about this momentum very very Welcome, I think in terms of building a new foundations for for growth and development the World Economic Forum we Work with the private sector we work with government we work with civil society and my partners here are representing government and business and This is what how the forum works we make sure that We really generate new opportunities by Focusing on this kind of dialogue now concretely what we've seen of course is that growth and development is connected to stability and so the World Economic Forum is working on Facilitating diplomatic dialogues here in Davos as well as throughout the year and But we try to help with the economic reforms as well and this is why we are why we are here and so concretely Majid who is here on the panel will talk about one Outcome that we've had over the past year through working with a group of business leaders Representing different companies in the region Really looking at some of the practical low-hanging fruits in terms of supporting Some of the government efforts that we see around the region and then of course I'm very excited to have Minister Fahuri with us here because the World Economic Forum will be holding a the 2017 Davos for the Middle East if you will in Jordan will be returning to Jordan and will be there May 19th to 21 and Again, it could not be a more critical time we will be talking about how do you get Private sector as well as international finance corporation or financial corporation more active In countries that may seem fragile, but yet need the support of those institutions and private sector entities to To support growth and development at a critical time But we'll be also talking about of course How we can further help with some of the some of the more Crisis regions and we expect for example a very fruitful dialogue on Reconstruction of Syria, so what is the what is the future for Syria and how can we of course not to Disturb the political process, but how can we already make some Smart thinking about what is required in terms of public-private cooperation for that country in particular Finally, let me just say that we have had as the World Economic Forum also a long track record on Working on youth unemployment, so this is something that we've actually worked on for a number of years and and We have been able to enable the private sector get more engaged in an era that frankly used to be Quite close to private sector initiative and so you are seeing more and more that companies feel number one responsible to deal with the youth unemployment question and concretely what we are doing is we are helping Companies to Skill people for jobs, so we talk a lot about the fourth industrial revolution here. And so how do you scale? young people for the jobs of tomorrow That can then bring additional competitiveness to the economies in the region. This is At the core of this effort, so we really look forward to Discussing all these issues in May in Jordan Thank you very much. Thank you, Merrick minister Let's move over to you and let's hear the the public sector voice But also I think you have something interesting to announce It's no secret that the World Economic Forum and and and Jordan have a very strong and long-standing relationship So I think you have some exciting news about what's going to happen later this year Absolutely. Thank you. It's a great pleasure and honor to be here with all of you Jordan is very honored to host and now for the ninth time the Middle East and North Africa World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea from 19th to the 21st May The meeting will be held under the patronage of his majesty King Abdullah the second Ibn al-Hussein and In partnership with the King Abdullah second fund for development in Jordan and the Jordanian government The theme is going to focus on enabling a generational transformation We are very much a region in 2017 at a very critical Juncture politically economically socially industrially and in terms of technology We're looking in hosting this meeting to address different themes and sessions that will focus on the ongoing geopolitical Shifts and there are some critical transitions that are taking place in the region that I'm sure the media is very much Following up on the humanitarian challenge and how do we move towards? cessation of conflicts in many countries and move towards political processes and diplomatic tracks and try to move into stabilization and economic reconstruction We have a Critical set of countries that are going through these transitions And we have another set of countries that are doing very well very stable And with tremendous opportunities Going forward still. This is a region that has a very big youth bulge We need over the next ten years to worry about creating a hundred million jobs at a minimum So there is tremendous challenge, but at the same time a tremendous opportunity We look forward to working very closely with the World Economic Forum with the private sector in our region To press ahead with the reform agenda And to make sure That we address the different transformations the political ones The diplomatic ones the economic ones that have to take place We're gonna look also at the fourth industrial revolution what it means to the MENA region How to empower gender and youth startups entrepreneurship as critical avenues and reforming overall education and human resource development in the region, which is very critical to deliver on the transformation the generational transformation, which is the main theme of this meeting in May and We are very privileged as Jordan to also showcase Some of the great reforms we are doing and some of the great reforms that some of our colleagues in the Gulf cooperation Council and some of the North African countries Are implementing on the business side on the economic side In spite of the conflict you see in the region. This is a region that has tremendous potential incredible business opportunities and the Reconstruction potential now that is coming up over the next 10 to 15 20 years is going to be massive So the region is well positioned to hopefully Once we get the political minimum stability start going towards Opportunities to help the region Reconstruct and move forward in a positive trajectory. So We look forward to hosting as many companies and business and political leaders in May to look at a very critical year for the Globe in terms of the Middle East and North Africa Transitions that will be taking place and we look forward to hosting all of you there in May. Thank you Thank You minister Majid You're not only senior business boys from the region But you're also have taken the leading role with the Regional Business Council of the World Economic Forum in both your roles I'd like to invite you to present the findings of the report where we're launching and let me get a copy The benefits of our online audience as well and for everybody in the room. We have we have copies for you here so Feel free to take a copy, but without further ado So, thank you very much Georg it gives me pleasure to represent the Regional Business Council of the Middle East North Africa We're close to 40 companies now leading companies from across the region in different sectors who are very active both with the World Economic Forum and More widely in their regions and in their activities on tackling some of the key Issues we started as Merak mentioned a couple of years ago Looking at what can we do to help with this key issue that we have of youth unemployment in the region As you know, it's 30 percent the highest percentage in the world And it's fundamentally caused by insufficient investment growth rigid labor markets and education skills Mismatch, but what can we do as the private sector and set up so we set a target of over a hundred helping over a hundred thousand young people We exceeded that target We're close to a quarter of a million now and we're aiming really to help with 1 million and different companies are doing it in different ways for our company it was English language training which is seen as a key employability factor and providing that through online courses MOOCs and we've been doing that across the region and in the Countries in which we operate from Egypt to Iraq and others the next step really became What do we need as the private sector in the region and that brings us to today's report as You know with all prices half what they were at the peak even though they're twice what they were a year ago Government budgets are strained and the governments in the region are no longer able to just keep Employing the young people in the public sector and it's no longer. It's not necessarily productive employment So the governments are calling on the private sector in the region to step up and absorb more And this is really the private sector saying, you know, we're absolutely keen to do that, but there are some key Basic reforms which are required regulatory reforms. These are not generational things. We need to read, you know change our commercial legislation framework Education and other things that could take a generation But these are some key things and this came out of a long process of workshops and interviews and interactions with academic leaders business leaders and experts on the region So this is not something that was written by a consultant working alone in a room This is really came out of the engagement Six key areas that that we feel as the private sector could make a real difference and the report Includes papers that were written by business leaders members of the regional business council so again not written just by the forum staff who are great by the way, but but this is a You know written actually by the CEOs from the region and other experts from the region either former ministers or people working on IFIs on the region Who contributed these papers? So I'll just go through the the six air key areas which together we're calling the actionable policy reforms initiative or APRI because as you know the forum likes its acronyms and I'm proud to be chairing this so number one is Enhancing the efficiency of the labor market some basic regulatory improvements that can Enhance labor mobility and that makes a huge difference in tackling youth unemployment in particular and enabling the young generation to enter The market in the first place, which is really the most challenging step is getting on the employment ladder Second one is bankruptcy laws. There's no point calling for entrepreneurship when in many countries in the region It's a criminal offense to bounce the check Let alone to bankrupt a company And many countries in the region UAE and Jordan of the others have taken some key steps in this area third one is simplifying the process of creating a company again Capitalism can't be expected to work when it can take a year sometimes and up to 90 processes For some countries in the region just to register a company a process that usually happens online in 15 minutes and many developed You know countries and again this in other areas is where the fourth industrial revolution and the use of technology can bypass traditional processes and accelerate Beyond or even you know the normal Traditional development pathway fourth one is strengthening the capacity for Reinforcing contracts through creating a special administrative units between the private and public sector to ensure that projects of national interest like key Infrastructure projects are seen through without hiccups The fifth is building functional mediation and arbitration methods many of our courts Unfortunately, it can take decade or you know, certainly many years To enforce commercial disputes or resolve commercial disputes that adds a huge cost to capital And inhibits investment from the private sector and therefore growth and job creation So so there are ways to get around that through the right commercial mediation arbitration methods and six and finally is Systems of good corporate governance and transparency which are again key There's been a lot of progress in the region, but this is an area of key reform again to enhance The impact and ability of the private sector So I encourage you all to look at the report And it's fundamentally about our need to transform our economies And create more job creators and not just job seekers And we look forward to building on this momentum between the private sector and the public sector using the unique Multi-stakeholder platform provided by the World Economic Forum beyond Davos Through some regional meetings we'll be having And all the way through to the regional summit in May Insha'Allah and Jordan. Thank you Thank you very much Majid and and Miriq before he makes more jokes about the forum staff and our acronyms I have a second document. I can waive alluringly at everybody here in the room and at our audience But maybe Miriq you want to give some context on this initiative here? You can also wave it. Yes, please. No, it's it's something that excites us quite a lot because it's For the first time that we are in a very structured way bringing together the World Economic Forum community, which is of course The top leaders from the private sector from the public sector from civil society And we are injecting the energy and the thinking of the best startups from the Arab world And so we're proud to announce that in Davos We signed a partnership agreement with the International Finance Corporation The CEO of the International Finance Corporation will be also one of the co-chairs of the meeting in Jordan and Together will be bringing Will be selecting first and then we'll be bringing The best 100 Arab world startups Why we're doing it? Of course in itself, this will be a tremendous opportunity for these emerging companies to connect with the incumbents, but the main reason really is to provide new thinking about economics and about Industry in the region will be very practically imagined that we would be putting someone from from a fintech company at at the steering wheel if you will of a discussion with finance ministers and Incumbent CEO CEOs of banks and having him or her steer a discussion about the future of finance In the Middle East and North Africa, which is by the way as many of you know One of the core industries in the region. So what we expect is that this will really positively disrupt some of the discussions about the future of the region and will prepare it better for the fourth industrial revolution or Will enable it to be more proactive and really reap the benefits of the technological change That we are seeing all around us Thank you very much We do have a microphone here if there's any questions from the floor. Let's open it. Yes, we have Two questions over there. Let's start with the lady in the first row, please If you could state your name and organization for the sake of our online audience I Was just listening to another session my Arab economy is with Prime Minister of Tunisia and other panelists And I'm listening to you right now And I do feel that there's a consensus among the political elite and economic elite in our region that The main challenge ahead of us is the fourth industrial Revolution how we can sort of incorporate these technological changes into our economies? My question is one of the main pillars of you know incorporating the fourth industrial Revolution is education So I was wondering how we could reform effectively our education systems knowing that in the Arab world We do have a lot of reforms of education that usually do not really turn out so well So how can we make it happen this time? Thank you. Thank you very much Let's take the second question from the gentleman as well, and then we Thank you again codes are to be to Israel Mr. Fajori What in what stage is this famous project of Dead Sea Red Sea Channel Was encouraged by my mr. Perry's especially now after his death What is the situation of this project? Thank you very much So we have a question on education the role of education and how reform can contribute it to better outcomes there And we have the second question In Jordan, we're extremely proud as a country with very little natural resources that we've always had the mantra This the the citizen or the human being is the most valuable resource we have Historically, and so we've invested heavily in education, but of course there's been some lapses in recent years And and this is why last year there was a very strong push through a public-private partnership platform to relaunch a new Strategy for human resource development over the next ten years, and it's very much the type of strategy that stops segmenting education to High school and elementary and basic education and then technical then university, but to look at it as a full value chain For an integrated model of human resource development, and we've adopted this nationally. It's been part of the Platform of the new government post the parliamentary elections in September and Winning the vote of confidence was based very much on having this as an anchor transformational Reform agenda that the government has committed to implementing and I Presume, you know very well that the challenge of having to create a hundred million jobs over the next ten years Means that many of the countries which had originally faced instability in our region was very much Instability because of not creating enough jobs for the youth so the threats are real and The countries of the region have to take this reform agenda very seriously and for those that don't I think is There will be some serious repercussions So we're going to share our bold initiative within the the MENA a world economic forum Meeting in May and there's other countries that are doing some incredible reforms in this arena and part of this is exchanging experiences and pushing for more public-private partnerships to look at Innovative approaches to reforming education. So you're absolutely right. I think this is the single most important Transformational Agenda reform item for the MENA region is to completely change The way we do human resource development across the region and it has to be receptive to the private sector needs and then that's why the that partnership is going to be very critical on the Red Dead conveyance project and I urge not to use the word channel because it's not a channel and it's a it's a misleading word I'm I'm pleased to inform you that the the Red Sea Dead Sea conveyance system is under International tendering actually by Jordan. We have qualified now five international consortia to develop the project on a BOT basis through a public-private partnership We have one of the best companies in the world competing with a consortia of companies to deliver This Jordanian project with regional beneficiaries that will provide water for Jordan as well as for Palestine and Israel in a regional cooperation framework given that water is a very critical challenge facing our region in spite of What we see across our region? So I'm I'm pleased to say that the project is progressing well and we just held Last December in Jordan at the Dead Sea actually an international donor conference that has generated over $400 million of additional support that would come to the project to support the private sector BOT Component the project is basically a desalination plant in Acaba An off-take agreement by the government of Jordan to buy all the water That's about a 700 or 650 million dollar project That will be done through your normal BOT transaction and then rather than putting the The brine water back into the Red Sea we're gonna Convey it and pump it to the Dead Sea with some seawater and help them stop the Dead Sea from losing about a meter a year Which is a very critical? Touristic economic heritage cultural biblical site On every possible level as you know Jordan is the second poorest country in the world In terms of water availability we dropped to second after being the fifth because of the massive influx of Refugees over the past five years specifically from Syria So for us the water issue is a resilience issue is a national economic security issue but the good side to this that The political will is there to move this project international community is very supportive And we are at the tendering phase now of the project and This is one unique project that ticks all the right boxes. It's an important national resilience project for Jordan It's an important regional economic peace project for Jordan Palestine and Israel because it will provide water resources for Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza as well as to Israel in the south And it will allow us to develop the entire Jordan Valley an area that would be able to absorb industries and and investments and and and job creation activities over the many decades to come And phase one of this project is anticipated to be about one point one billion dollars I will point out that Jordan has been very successful in using PPP schemes public-private partnership over the past ten years we've had over ten billion dollars of Public-private partnerships to deliver infrastructure in renewable energy and energy in transport in Water wastewater, so we are accustomed to doing these types of project and I I Mentioned that we're an economy of about 38 billion dollars So when you do over ten years that amount of infrastructural projects using the private sector That's a tremendous actually success story given you know the modest and Financial resources that the Jordan has and we've compensated for this challenge by actually using public-private partnerships to deliver on infrastructure in a very successful win-win approach I Just wanted to say something about the education and skills. It's absolutely required and it's a generational Challenge it takes time, you know our region is almost unique Not completely, but almost there are some other but you know parts of the world southern Europe Maybe parts of Africa, but by and large across our region We have more and more unemployed graduates and companies still saying that they can't find the talent So there's obviously a mismatch there In fact in North Africa you're three times more like more likely to be unemployed if you have a degree So some something is really going wrong with the whole education system as the private sector We've tried to answer not what needs to happen overall where we're engaged on that to the oil and gas sector For example, we're engaged in initiative Here from the forum to engage with universities on designing the curriculum that we need For the graduates to hire but in the meantime The three top things for employability for young people. It's been shown English language skills IT skills and what are called workplace skills, which usually comes from some work experience But the ability to work in teams communicate and so on and these are things that we can tackle now and and so through Online courses and providing internships going back to the new vision for our employment The hundreds of thousands that the companies of the regional business councils We're trying to tackle exactly these issues that aside from the education system How can we make get some quick wins to help young people enter the job market? Thank you, Mirok. I believe you want to add to that. Yeah on the education picture Full agreeing with Majid. I think there is this aspect of women empowerment in this as well and as you know If you look at statistics in terms of achievement academic achievement in universities They're outstanding Women or I think the rankings of women in academics tend to tend to exceed those of men But then you have it lost when it comes to when it comes to the transition to the workplace And so what we are seeing obviously is that with technology you see that in a number of countries maybe adding to the workplace skills now of course virtual working and And the fact that more and more women are able to access work through technology is something that is really changing The landscape and I think it's a great opportunity Also should be mentioned that the region and the governments in the region are actually one of the biggest spenders on education so of course the Challenge here is to provide quality education and giving access to quality education for future Competitiveness and so here again technology is quite important. We're seeing the emergence of new entities on this On this front you may have seen the emergence of Al Gorel foundation for example recently in the UAE where they have quite an innovative approach around using technology to Help vulnerable young population to access some of the top Content that is out there academically. So we would expect that Platforms like this will continue to emerge in the region. Thank you very much. We have one question from Frank here Please thanks Frank came from the national newspaper Abu Dhabi the the six reforms that you propose or advocate They all seem so obviously common sense, don't they? But they haven't been introduced across the region generally in the past and with many of them, you know looking through there would be resistance Some of those changes they they all involve some elements of social change as well as Economic or legal change, don't they do you know with the first one to enhance the efficiency of the labor market? That's that's the kafala system you're talking about With the second one There you're talking about the decriminalizing bouncing checks again, which is another issue that's you know There's of course a lot of problems. I mean even in the UAE, which is I would imagine more advanced on these measures than Some other parts of the region There there is some quite serious stiff opposition to these kind of changes. So sorry long way around to the question Why haven't these things happened before? Thank you friends so Some some of them are or should be more straightforward than others and For example registering a company and the UAE has made big strides in automating that or putting more that process online Other countries not so much on the first one efficiency of labor market actually wasn't so much the kafala system It was more about some of the larger population countries in the region outside the GCC where it's more Southern European-style labor regulations where there's real stickiness and the ability to hire and fire and people to move it between Jobs and it's been shown whether looking at Germany and comparing What Germany did to what a lot of the Latin countries in Europe didn't do and you and you'll see the impact of labor market reforms And you know for example Scandinavia There's quite a lot of labor market flexibility despite having what many people would think of as a socialist System even in the kafala system, and there's been more flexibility Introduced some of these like you know the bankruptcy law the UAE's introduce the bankruptcy law You need some back infrastructure on that you need to have credit rating. You need to have it's it's not easy but There are ways to do it and we're starting to see you know the more progressive governments in the region tackling some of these issues Head on not none of them, you know every one of these is really a journey None of them is one that you can just tick off and say done And there's always scope for more improvement But for many of the countries in the region and some of the bigger population countries in the region They haven't even started to tackle these yet So this is really the us as the private sector saying You're you're saying you want us to do more and employ more and invest more There's a lot of private capital in the region These are some things that would really help unlock that potential for mutual benefit and we're willing to work with governments in the region To activate some of these Could be sorry could Could you repeat the question with them? I mean is this some kind of ultimatum from the private sector? The private sector is is is investing we're all investing and and and actually you know I share the minister's optimism for the region the the outlook is very positive And if we can turn this youth bulge into a resource the way countries like Turkey have managed to do the way countries like China have Managed to do we can fuel our GDP growth for a long time to come what we're saying and and we've you know We've heard it even in the region that we sometimes we've got really good physical infrastructure But the regulatory infrastructure is like what's holding us back, you know It's like a ball on chain on the Usain Bolt's leg It's kind of holding holding back. We could do so much more is the point So this this is not an ultimatum by any means. This is actually a positive engagement to say this could these Steps which some of them are are challenging, but none of them take 20 years Like education reform might take much longer and these things could really make a quick difference Thank you very much We've hopelessly overrun the timing so I don't want to cut everyone or anybody off But I think we have to come to a close for the press conference here. Thank you very much for watching Thank you for being here and Warm thank you to everybody here on the panel. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you very much