 Good afternoon and welcome to the session which is developed jointly between the World Economic Forum and Al-Arabiya news channel. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Nadine Hani and I present the business news on Al-Arabiya news channel and it is such a pleasure and honor to be here again with you meeting face-to-face after two very tough years and thank you for being here for this session which will discuss the economic outlook for the MENA region. Before we start the conversation I'd like to note that this session is being live-streamed as we speak now on all the social media platforms of Al-Arabiya news channel and a part of it will be broadcasted live during the conversation. So for years the MENA region had been struggling with its own set of problems relating to high levels of unemployment especially among the youth. Lack of inclusive growth as well as political instability in many of its countries. As we meet today the level of challenges has increased dramatically especially for commodity importers in the MENA region from inflation levels that are widening deficits and plunging more and more people into poverty to already high debt levels vulnerable to the aggressive expected rise in interest rates in addition to supply chain issues and food shortages resulting from the war in Ukraine. So how does the outlook look like and what are the different countries doing to minimize that impact and harness the growth potential of the young populations of the MENA region. To discuss those issues I have the pleasure of introducing an esteemed lineup of speakers. Please join me in welcoming his Excellency Mr. Muhammad Al-Jadaan Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia. His Excellency Mr. Salman Ben Khalifa Al-Khalifa Minister of Finance and National Economy of Bahrain. Mr. Muhammad Al-Aardi Executive Chairman of Invest Corp from Bahrain and Mr. Alain Bajani CEO of Majid Al-Futim from the UAE. Your Excellencies gentlemen thank you very much for taking the time to be with us. Our time is tight but we are going to try to take a couple of questions from the audience so you can start preparing your questions. Your Excellency let me start with you. I'd like you to take a couple of minutes to give us your outlook on the MENA region in general. Keep it concise because also we want to hear about Saudi Arabia. Thank you very much. Thank you Nadine and I would like to thank WIF and it's good to be back after two years in person. MENA just so that we are clear. MENA while we share a lot of common features is actually a very diverse also. So what might fit in one country with challenges faces one country may not be the same as others. So let us just be careful not to take MENA as a one block as a one block. That said there is actually a lot of common advantages and common challenges. The outlook generally is positive and I think the medium term outlook in terms of growth is actually very positive. It is above 4 percent. But there are challenges and I can't say the challenges in a very brief way are what the challenges that are facing the rest of the world. But in certain areas it's actually more serious in MENA. It's energy security fueled by COVID post COVID recovery supply chain challenges. Energy security food security is also another serious problem again fueled by the current geopolitical situation. And in this particular area let us remember that the MENA region is a significant importer of wheat. And if you look at just some basic figures we represent about 6 percent of the world population. And the World Bank is saying 20 percent of the world's potential starvation or not really starvation but really fragile 20 percent of it is going to be in the MENA. Some countries in MENA and both about 90 percent of their wheat needs compared to other regions. But there are a lot of good side really potential. There is a young population. There is a lot of countries who are really embarking in significant reform. So we need to look at it within that context. Can you give us some expectations for the economic outlook for the growth expected growth of Saudi Arabia oil prices at one hundred dollars. Of course made it easier. By the way how much easier is it to do your job with oil at one hundred ten dollars. It's actually more difficult in a lot of ways. But the projection for this year is about seven point four percent and oil growth. Oil is about 19 percent because we are producing it has nothing to do with the price. It's just a production. So the production will increase. So the GDP will will be about 19 percent and the oil side. An average non oil and the midterm will be about six percent. So it's very healthy. Confidence is actually very strong and the potential is quite high. Your Excellency Mr. Khalifa Bahrain is another country that is benefiting from the oil revenue and fall to help with the fiscal budget. So can you give us your outlook for Bahrain going forward. Thank you very much Nadine. It's a pleasure to be here today on this esteemed panel and to be back in Davos after an absence. High oil prices have the benefit of reducing funding needs. That is absolutely the case. And we are seeing strong economic growth coming out of COVID and that strong economic growth towards the end of 2021 has continued very much and pretty much picking up pace through 2022. So we're seeing strong economic growth coming across all sectors. We have very diversified economy in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Last year in Q4 of last year we hit 81 percent non oil sectors in the economy. So that diversification means that the broad based growth that we're seeing coming out of COVID has served us very well. Last year we also launched our economic recovery plan where we outlined very clearly with five pillars. What we would be doing to number one create jobs, number two simplify procedures for investors, number three accelerate strategic projects. Number four focus on priority sectors in the economy that we will be driving and number five achieving fiscal balance. Our fiscal balance plans were launched in 2018. We were making significant headway before COVID. Of course, the impact of oil price and of the drop in non oil activity meant that we had to revise those numbers meant that we had to revisit our fiscal balance plan projections. And now we are aiming to achieve fiscal balance by 2024 at an oil price of $60. And so when it comes to ensuring that we maintain discipline during this time and ensuring that we stay on track, we focus very much on that $60 number because that is the basis that underpins our plans. And we've shown we've shown absolute discipline in moving forward. But right now the break even price of oil is higher. So can you give us some financial metrics, the expectations for the budget deficit? And so in 2022 in 2022, we're seeing high oil prices reduce that deficit substantially versus plan because oil prices higher than that. And therefore our projected deficits for 2022 in our plan were built around $60 a barrel. It's also important to note that our state budget was at $50 a barrel. And now we're achieving triple digit oil sales prices. So we will see a significantly lower deficit in the first half of the year and will be well on our way to achieving our targets before your end. Mr. Lardy, I'd like to hear from a private sector perspective. How do you see the outlook for the minor region given the global context of a raging war in Ukraine, inflation and rising interest rates? So I think from what the directionists have said, I think every investor in the world looks at the Gulf now in particular. And I think a big part of the Middle East is the same as really living the ideal scenario, particularly for inflation now. I mean, we're in investments. If you can raise prices, expand volume and not raise cost is really heaven for everyone. Now, this is what the GCC is living in at the moment, but I think it's not, again, like we said before, I don't think the oil price is the only one at the moment because all these robust and strong visions, great reforms that has happened, is really, I think, setting and positioning the Gulf to the pre-COVID growth. So we see, we're very optimistic. We see we're deploying capital in the Gulf and it's a great story. Just as the Gulf, what about the wider region? Well, we at Invest Corp concentrate on the Gulf, but obviously, like His Excellency said, you know, there are areas and there are regions in Egypt and others are really showing. That are vulnerable for the commodity shock and Mr. Bajani, you have also businesses in different countries and you also operate in countries that are oil importing. What keeps you up at night right now, other than the Lebanese? I know it comes with the nationality. Everything. When you're Lebanese, you don't sleep at night anyway. So, well, look, I think the region, His Excellency, Mohammad Jad An said it, our biggest, our biggest lost opportunity is that the Minna region is not a region. And unless we get to a point where this Minna region becomes a region and we can really punch where we should be punching, we're going to continue to be under par. You know, we're launching tomorrow the Majdal Futem report on regional economic integration. And one of the things that you will find is the fact that the Minna region, on average, produces half the GDP, the average global GDP. So each one of us individually in the Minna region, we actually produce half what an average person in the world produces or contributes, which tells you a great story about what we are missing. We're missing in our part of the world. Now, this is not to undermine, I think, or to not to emphasize the importance of the fantastic reforms that are happening, whether in Saudi Arabia, whether in the UAE. Today we have two major engines of economic growth that are basically kind of at their best for thanks to the reforms that have been put in place, but also thanks to the outlook that we're seeing and basically a bit on the geopolitical fundamentals especially the oil of price, Bahrain, and other Qatar, etc. Benefit from that or manual benefit from it. So there is a bit on the oil importing side, I would say, more headroom, which I think is very good. But this is also not only due to the fact that now we are seeing price of oil at this stage. It's also due to the fact that when you look back in the past two years, managing the crisis from monetary standpoint, we actually left the region with much better headroom compared to other parts of the world. This is why we're going to have less inflation, although we are a region going back to MENA, that imports 80% of our food. We import 85% of our food in the MENA region. So we are a huge importer of food. Despite that, we're going to have less inflation in our part of the world because we have central banks and basically regulators that have more tools that are at their disposal compared to elsewhere in the world. And this is something really, it goes to the credit of how these two years have been managed in our part of the world. It's not a region that is without challenges. I mean, Egypt today is going through a rough patch a year ago, two years ago, we were... It was a success story. The issue is that it was very vulnerable to what's going on in the world, and it was a... Yes, I think that it's a combination of... I think what's happening now in the world was a trigger, an additional trigger, but this is not why things are where they are. I think there are more reforms that needs to be done. I think the Egyptian government is very committed to make sure this happened. I think there is an IMF report that's happening. And I think today we're seeing something which was very encouraging, is great commitment from the Gulf producing nations, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to actually invest substantial amount of money in the private sector in Egypt and basically kind of contribute to the economy beyond only the monetary support that is surely needed. I think all of that puts us, I would say, a very positive picture. But I also think we owe it to our region. We owe it to the almost 600 million people that live from North Africa all the way to Pakistan to really, really work together in order to push this region to reach its economic potential. Mr. Jordan, I'm not sure if you mentioned inflation. You did not give us your expectations for inflation. Can you give us that for Saudi Arabia for 2022? And I want to ask you about the budget surplus because everybody wants to know how you are going to deploy it. In the first quarter of this year, the budget surplus was more than $15 billion. If oil prices are going to stay at these levels and it's expected that they would, we would end the year with about $55 billion surplus. How will you deploy that surplus? Before I respond to this, Nadine, I think it is very important just to know to close the discussion possibly at the first point. I really, really think it is very critical for international organizations and multilateral development institutions, including the World Bank, to look at this region very carefully and very quickly. I think there are countries that really, really need support and we are working a dime of the World Bank, but using this forum I would like really to invite everyone to take this very seriously and quickly. Going back to your question, inflation in Saudi in the first quarter was about 1.6%. We expect inflation by the end of the year to be around 2.1 to 2.3. And in relation to surplus, thanks to the reform that we have done. I mean, leaving again, people just look at the oil price and believe that what is happening now is just the result of oil price. We had oil prices in Saudi above this level. It is really how you are going to use this, what reform, how the system is prepared to deal with this surplus. Obviously, we are decoupling the economy from oil price. So this fluctuation in oil revenue is not impacting how we are managing our public finance. So as in when surplus materializes end of this year, because it's not really quarterly, our budget is yearly, then we will be looking at that location based on Vision 2030 program that is clearly established for public finance, which is the fiscal sustainability program, which sets clear fiscal rules on how to look at the surplus between deposits, PIF, and the F. That's my question. The vision focuses on diversifying the economy through the PIF. It is a main vehicle for doing that. So are there one of them? One of the main vehicles. Is there a plan to transfer some funds to the PIF right now? I think there is no immediate plan to transfer any funds to PIF. PIF has actually ample liquidity. The question would come at the first quarter of next year when we have actually the surplus from this year is where are we going to allocate it? And it's basically where is the most positive impact and the economy going to come from? We have the NDF, which is a very important institution that supports private sector investment and private sector participation in the economy is a Vision 2030 priority. So we need to make sure that we allocate enough amount of money to them. We have opportunities to invest with PIF because they are actually making very good deals and their investments and doing very well, both inside Saudi and outside. And then you need to look at your reserves. Is there a potential, medium term, external shocks that you need to build more reserves or what you have now is enough? Your Excellency, just a follow up question. When oil prices are high, there's a certain level of expectation among the people for a more relaxed approach to austerity, which was in place not a long time ago because oil prices went up very quickly. So how are you going to balance between on one hand limiting the impact of inflation on people, on the other hand, not relaxing the reform programs or do you plan on relaxing them? I think the fundamental part is making sure that you have a social safety net that takes care of the most vulnerable within the society. So instead of actually having subsidies distributed to everyone and which in a lot of way will go to the most rich because they have the bigger houses, the bigger cars, they can see more fuel, more energy. That is not fair. So you need to direct your support to those who are in need. And we have the Citizens Account Program, which is designed to do that. Exactly. We are very clear on our determination to continue on our reforms. We started dealing with inflation actually early on. If you remember towards the end of last year, we froze the price escalation of gasoline for the internal economy and the households at $70. So anything above $70, the economy will not feel that heat. That is helping. You could see it in the inflation in Saudi because if you let the energy to go up at the current levels, you would have seen the inflation a lot higher. So that is one reason why the inflation is low because you kept the energy part of the inflation. Your Excellency, Mr. Al-Khalifa, Bahrain had its own reform program in 2018. And then you tweaked that program in 2021. So again, is there pressure now with the current prices to relax on reforms? And how do you manage between maintaining growth and managing inflation? I'll start by saying you always solve for growth and you should always solve for growth because sustainable growth is what we should be delivering. Inflationary pressures have to be managed, but we should not compromise the drive to deliver sustainable growth anytime. And any historical efforts to try and do that, to try and slow down growth on purpose, the results are in the history books. And when we're going through our programs today and as Excellency Minister Al-Jad'an mentioned earlier, let us not underestimate the work that has been done on increasing non-oil revenues. And today, the increase in oil prices has maybe masked the amount of effort and the amount of results that have been delivered by that increase. I can talk about Bahrain's numbers. If we look since 2018, we will be on course to have more than tripled non-oil revenue by the end of this year. That's significant. Yeah, the oil price increase maybe masks the amount of work that has been done. And more importantly, which is an extremely important point that maybe was missed in a lot of reform processes in the past. And we can see it very much in the thinking in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the efforts that we're doing in Bahrain, is the correlation of the fiscal position to economic growth. This is something that was overlooked in many previous cycles. And when I say that, I mean, when you look at revenue items that you add into a budget, they have to be positively correlated to economic growth. Then those become more sustained. And if you look at expenditure items, they should not be positively correlated to economic growth. And therefore, we are not driving austerity programs. And I can tell you in the fiscal balance program, the Kingdom of Bahrain, it is not an austerity program. It is a readjustment program. And that readjustment program will readjust the balance of revenues and expenditures while maintaining the growth trajectory of the economy. That's what's important to do. Mr. Ladi, we're hearing of the different reform programs and diversification programs that have been happening all over the Gulf. Do you think that this creates opportunities for a company like you that, and not any, I would of course like to hear about the investment opportunities, but also opportunities that are good for the bottom line, but also help with that diversification drive? No, for sure. I mean, to his excellency comment about Bahrain, we lived through the pandemic in Bahrain. And I must say, you know, how it was managed, we felt safe to go to our offices, leave if we won't, come back if we won't, more than any other office in any other geography that we've had in the world. And so this is really a testament to how, you know, the government in Bahrain has really taken that. And all the GCC one has to admit in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, it was also the same. For sure, but I'm absolutely for sure. I mean, the whole of the, I think the GCC comes out of it with really robust vaccination success. I think the reforms, obviously every country has its visions and has its reforms. But I think the thing that you see now with these reforms, that there is a really strong will to ensure that these governments don't do all this by themselves because they can. So they really want the private sector to take part of it. And so we see a very strong PPP programs, which is really good. I think the other thing there is also a great focus on expanding the private sector, which is really good. And you see that with capital markets, you see that with the exchanges reform business environment. In terms of what we see as opportunities, we see a lot of opportunities. I mean, we have an infrastructure fund to deploy in the region. We have a pre-IPO fund to deploy in the region. We've started a blockchain investment fund. So yeah, there's a lot that we see there. I might go back and ask you about the interesting sectors as well. Mr. Birgiani, I would like to ask you about the retail operations. You run massive retail operations all over the region. And now with inflation, I would like to hear from you how much has the cost of inventory increased? How much have you been able to pass that through to the final consumer? Can you give us a feel of how is it to be in that sector right now with the current increase in prices? Well, it's unlike his excellent job. It's exactly the opposite. The opposite. So we've been fighting, passing through, I would say, inflationary costs for the past nine months at least. And I think we are at a point in time where this is not possible anymore, because it's huge. Give me an average. I'm not going to give you an average, because there are no averages. I mean, different countries, different markets have different realities. And I don't want us to basically just generalize. The realities are different. What I would like to say is we are today in a situation whereby we're going to see much less inflationary costs passing through, for example, in economies like the U.S., Saudi Arabia, et cetera, where there has been and there is continue to be tools to deal with that. Elsewhere, it's going to be different. You see already government capping prices at the retail level, which is understandable from a social standpoint, but there has to be solutions. And I second the appeal of his excellency about bringing in the IFIs as early as possible to deal with some of the issues that we are living through. This is not a region's issue. This is a global issue. Of course, we have structural imbalances that you need to address. And what I would say is that I would urge, and second, both their excellencies drive to actually keep the reforms in place, not to loosen up early enough and also to make sure that we get to a point where we actually have headroom for the future because this is not the last issue. The impact of the Russia-Ukraine war is certainly real, but it is not what causes most of the inflationary pressure that we are seeing today. Just a follow-up question. Of course, when prices increase at its demand, have you seen a decline in demand and purchasing power in any of the countries where you are operating in today? Certainly. We are seeing a much more, I would say, value-conscious customer because of the inflationary pressures, definitely. And it is something that is going to become more and more of an issue in the coming months and years depending on how the geopolitical situation evolves and depending actually where we're going to end up in terms of solutions to the problems that you are facing today. A big question mark today, no one has an answer, is how much is going to be the impact of production and supply chain of grains. You know that Russia exports not only grains or wheat, et cetera, for bread and other consumables, but also for the fertilizer cost. Also for livestock feed, et cetera. So all of these things are going to have a big impact on other products that are not today included in what we call the bread basket. So it depends how things evolve. Are we going to be able in Europe to actually strike a deal in order to keep some of this grain flowing or not? And what are the solutions that some of the countries that have potential that can step in in order to put more stock on the market, do it or not, not only depending on the price, but actually the cost can be managed, but the supply is actually very important. Let's take a few questions from the audience. If you have a question, just give me a sign. And if possible, please stand up for the camera purposes. Are there any questions? Please, can we pass on a microphone? And please, if you can just stand up and tell us your name and the question. Hi, Hela Al-Mayyad from Bahrain. I wanted to ask to Al-Fatim because he said he felt the pressure of the people having less purchasing power. How has that reflected in their relationship with tenants and has that reflected in any way? So you know, Masjid Al-Fatim, we always have great relationship with our tenants and we're always very happy about that because we are very much cautious when it gets to what we call our basically OCR. So make sure that the pressure on tenants' occupancy costs continue to be within what's acceptable for our tenants from a top-line standpoint. So this is something that actually is a policy across our portfolio of shopping modes. And this is why, if you look at our performance compared to other UCS with higher occupancies and less occupancy costs. We have a question there. Yeah, I'm Karlyn Taylor from FTI Consulting and I wanted to ask his excellency about the NEON project and how you view that in Saudi Arabia and how the kingdom views the expenditure going on there. Nice success. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think Saudi is moving full steam with its reform agenda, including diversification. And NEON is one of the projects that is being developed as we speak. It's a new way of developing cities. It is progressing unplaned. It is owned by PIF as a development, the Public Investment Fund, not the government. So it's an investment project. But infrastructure is financed. The basic infrastructure is financed by the government. But it is not only NEON. I mean, we are talking about really a very wide spectrum of projects, including infrastructure that is continuing to be developed and expanded in Saudi, including logistics, including entertainment, tourism, mining and the like. I can tell you even in the financial sector, which is my direct domain, there is a lot that is happening, including in the financial technology. We have licensed three digital banks only in the last few months. These are fundamentally changing the landscape. We have a few technology companies that have received their final licenses. And we have tens of them on the sandbox, environment. That is part of what we are doing to develop the financial sector. Actually, if I may, I will use this opportunity to say, actually, we are announcing today that the Dowels subsidiary, the Securities Depository Center company is actually signed and now linking with Euroclear for the post-trade services. This is going to open the door significantly to the local market. So this is another step in really developing both the debt market and equity market. So there is a lot happening. Just a quick question before we go to Mesmin Al-Araibi. I heard that Arab News reported that the WEF might is looking at Saudi Arabia for having the regional conferences there. Is there anything material about that that you can tell us? I mean, it would be announced when it is done, but there is discussions all the time. OK. Mesmin Al-Araibi. Thank you. Mesmin Al-Araibi, can you repeat in a concise way because they couldn't hear you on the live streaming? So I'm not sure if the mic is on. There you go. OK. We always say there's opportunity if only there was more stability in some countries of the region. So I wanted to ask you where you see points of opportunity despite instability in the region at a time that we're seeing good growth, particularly in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and others. To whom is the question addressed? Ideally, Sheikh Salman and his Excellency Minister, Jadan. Sheikh Salman. Thank you. One of the main things, Meena, that we've seen recently with technology and the developments in technology and how they've enabled many people in terms of their economic productivity becomes very key in terms of where the opportunities are lying forward. So there have been big advances maybe in the GCC economies that you've seen with regards to building economies of creativity and ideas, which are transformational in terms of the economic value added versus having a factory with a job that you show up in in the morning and the economic activity that is associated with that. But the economic output of creativity and of ideas that results in real economic value added means that we have to empower and enable that across the region. So yes, there are big challenges economically when we look at the wider region. But when you look at where the human resources are and when you're talking about an economic and an economy built on creativity and ideas, then you need to be focused on investing in that human capital. And yes, there have been many initiatives in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in the UAE, in Bahrain that has focused on empowering individuals and investing in them in recognition of the fact that you can now add value into the economy purely by having a good idea. This is very different to the way that economic planning used to be done before. And that same economic planning and same empowerment mechanisms and tools that have been deployed maybe on a wider basis within the Gulf, for example, I'll give Bahrain's example. The setup of the Temkin Fund, which collected the labor fees that were being, that were put on, and then distributed them to Bahrainis for upskilling, for training programs, and for starting new ventures, has covered over 85% of Bahrainis working in the economy. Yes, it's a small economy, but when you look at the breadth that it has covered, right? So then you take that, those kind of models. You scale them up in regions with larger population centers, and you start seeing that the opportunity is tied to where the people are, and you start investing that way. Mr. Jetan, very briefly, because we need to take some more questions. I think it is the youth, and it is technology, and I would just suggest for brevity is that you visit MISC Youth Majlis. I went there yesterday, and I'm sure you will get out, a lot more optimistic about the region. And I went there today, and I urge everybody to visit. It's fantastic. You're just telling us about what an experience it was to listen to these young people exchanging ideas. There's a question there. Hello, I'm Ali Ahmad from Arab News. These questions is for their excellencies and Mr. Bajjani. Lebanese elections just wrapped up. Any hope? And what type of... And what type of financial remedies do you really suggest for the country in such a time? Thank you. Very quickly, Mr. Jetan. Obviously, we really, really wish the Lebanese people all the best, and we really care about Lebanese people. I mean, we host in our country thousands and thousands of them, and a lot of them actually in prominent positions. So we want to see the best for Lebanon, but then we can't act as Lebanese. It is the Lebanese who will need to act. And I think as in when we see a serious government that is really going to take care of the people of Lebanon, we will act. We have been hysterically, and there is no reason why we would not come to support. So you're not involved in the current formation of a government after the change that is happening and the result of the elections? I mean, the last I checked, I'm not Lebanese, so... Last question, Mr. Samarie, and then I have a few questions I would like some brief answers. Hi, good afternoon. I'm Mohamed Tamalia, a global shaper from the Jeddah hub, representing the part of delegation, representing the youth voice at Davos. My question is for you excellently, in terms of the capital markets and also on Bahrain, how capital markets have grown significantly in Saudi with it being institutionalized and put on the global stage. How did you see the role of the capital markets in creating value for the economy driving as part of the vision the growth in Saudi Arabia, and how do you see the outlook for the capital markets going forward? And for Mr. Aoudi, just one more question, please, as well. Given your invest-corp and the number of companies that were spin-off into the Saudi market, how do you see that value creation that was created for these companies, three or four companies in Saudi, and what are the preferred sectors that you have in Saudi and the GCC specifically? Thank you very much for your time. Very quickly, I think I can tell you that capital market plays significant role in supporting growth. So it provides funding for investors, including small and medium enterprises. We have seen in Saudi the largest number of IBOs last year. A lot of them were small businesses, so that is actually providing that financing needs. The same goes with the debt capital market. I think the potential is very high, and the growth prospects would require a very strong and robust capital market. Mr. Aoudi, I'd like to hear your answer to this question, but also I want to ask you about the role of capital markets. Normally, they should play a role in fueling, being the engine to fuel growth. Do you see them playing that role in the GCC given really the big increase that happened in the past couple of years up until the crash of Wall Street? Thank you, for sure. Stock exchanges in capital markets are really the heart of the economy, and this is how they should be looked at. If we can really upgrade them, bring liquidity, bring public offerings, it just distributes wealth, it creates wealth, it does everything you need for a growing economy. You mentioned Tedaul. Tedaul is fantastic for us. We have put five companies in Tedaul to just give you an example. Last year, we put one of the companies in there, and I think we were after something like $200 million. It was oversubscribed by something like $6 billion, and it was all local money. There was no hedge funds from here and there, there was no institutions from America, which tells you the real potential that there is in the GCC. Now, I think there are some governments that are really giving it focus, more than other governments, which I think, again, to Alain's point about the whole region needs to pull in this, because there's just so much potential in it, and we shouldn't really lose this opportunity. The sectors, we really like strong companies that have strong shareholders, that have a path to grow and have a path for exit. We've done everything to do with the consumers, tech-enabled, services, and now, obviously, like I said, we are into infrastructure, pre-IPOs, and even blockchain. Mr. Ladi, what happened to the AC Milan deal? Ah, so... I mean, first of all, I want to congratulate AC Milan on the big victory last night. I think that was good. Obviously, for legal and regulatory reasons, I can't say much than that, but what I would say is that AC Milan is a great club. But what is the situation now? Are you still considering buying the team? Where do we stand today? So the situation is that we are really very interested in the industry of sports. We want to invest in it. We see a lot of opportunity in the European footballs. It's still behind the United States in terms of leveraging on that. And I would really leave it at that at the moment. Okay. Sheikh Salman, there is immense pressure on governments to invest in a greener future, and especially for oil-exporting countries. I know that most GCC countries are doing a lot in terms of the energy transition. Can you tell us what are your plans in that space? Thank you for that, Nadine. And, you know, if you look at the technology revolution or what we call the technology revolution, it was really very focused on the generation, transmission, and consumption of data. That's what changed fundamentally in the technology revolution. And when we're looking forward and we started saying to ourselves, what will fundamentally change in five years' time, 10 years' time? What will be fundamentally different in 20 years' time? We've really grown attached to the idea that the way that we generate, transmit, and consume energy will be what will be completely transformationally different. And that's why looking at investing in technology in the energy space means that we have to look at localized solutions, localized generation, localized consumption, and really build and invest in that way for a sustainable future. But this doesn't happen overnight. This happens over decades. And during that process, we should not lose sight of what is our main source generation. And that's something everybody in the world needs to continue to focus on. You have to plan this over a two-decade cycle. It cannot happen by next year. Especially today with the energy situation. Mr. Jadan, I think our time is out. I'd like to finish with a question. In the same area, there are so many initiatives that Saudi Arabia had announced that could have a spillover effect on the Minna region. Can you tell us a little bit more about them? I mean, one of them is actually related to your question, which is the Saudi Green Initiative. Exactly. And with it, we also announced the Middle East Green Initiative, which basically is a regional platform that will bring about the experience that we have gone through. We have invested already for the past few years on reducing emissions and renewables and new technologies. We put forward under our G20 presidency the circular carbon economy. So we have a lot of ideas that actually the Middle East at large can benefit from and we'll work with them to make sure that we have a greener future, less emission, and using technologies without actually being too aggressive and going into actually serious energy security challenges that we are facing today. My worry is people today have a lot of attention about energy security, just because you have the gas at 500% more than just a year ago. And the problem with that is now we are burning in Europe and other parts the dirtiest coal. Exactly. And that is a serious problem. I think we need to be wise about the transition. We need to make sure that we are serious about our climate change targets. But at the same time, it is targets that will happen in 2050, 2030, 2040, or 2060, not today. So today you need fossil fuel. You need to work on technologies to reduce emission and you need to invest on your journey for the green by 2050 or 2040. On that note, we're going to end the panel. Thank you very much for being with us on the panel and for everyone who joined. Thank you very much. I hope you found it informative and enjoyable. Thank you.