 Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. My name is Mina Al Arabi. I'm the editor of The National based in Abu Dhabi and I am delighted to be chairing the session today. Gulf economies all in. And we have powerhouses to discuss Gulf economies on the panel today. Our biggest challenge is going to be time with six formidable speakers and only 45 minutes. We'll try to get through as much as we can. Faster economic growth is being seen in the GCC region. Adjustments as we think about the energy transition diversification investment opportunities. But it's not all rosy like any maturing economies. There are challenges and there are needs for reforms and changes. And that's what we're going to be discussing. I once interviewed the head of the IFC Muhtar Diyab and he said to me when I come to the UAE and really he was referencing the GCC and the UAE he said it feels like Wall Street meets Silicon Valley because there's money to be made. There is opportunity and also there's innovation innovative thinking. We've just had COP 28 in the UAE. Qatar hosted the World Cup. Saudi Arabia has ambitious projects from Niyam and also hosting the World Cup soon. Bahrain leading the charge on many different opportunities and the list goes on. So the World Bank estimates 3.6% growth in 2024 and inshallah 3.7% growth in 2025. This is compared to 2.4% globally for 2024. So in some ways the region also has to think about what's happening globally and how will those dynamics affect that decision making. So I'm pleased to introduce our panel immediately to my left is Minister Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment in Saudi Arabia, Minister Ali Ahmad Al-Kawari, Minister of Finance of Qatar, Hanadi Saleh, Chair of the Board of Directors in Agility. And we have of course Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Minister of Finance, National Economy of Bahrain and Majid Jafar, CEO of Crescent Petroleum and fellow young global leader. We're holding on to the young. Majid and I. And of course, His Excellency Ahmed Jassim is the IB Chairman of Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development. OK, so Sheikh Salman, I want to start with you, please. Get us thinking about how you see the growth outlook in Bahrain and what are the key indicators for those growth patterns but also what is your biggest challenge? Thank you very much, Mina. And I did say it in the holding area. So I will say it again. I would have to be careful saying anything before Minister Al-Falih. He's the voice of wisdom and the statesman that has been an architect of the development agenda that we see in the region today, if it's an honor to be with you, sir. And with everybody else on this esteemed panel. When we talk about growth, if you allow me, Mina, I'll just zoom out for a second and look at overall GCC regional growth and the macro trends in it today. It's a 2.3 trillion GDP per annum economic unit. It is moving towards being a $3 trillion per annum GDP economic zone by 2030 and moving towards being a $6 trillion per annum economic zone by 2050. That's the macro trend at conservative numbers. We can look at where global growth will be over the next couple of years. But let's zoom out and look at the long term and look at where that development agenda is. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is 50% of that GDP and a big driver of that growth. And that growth across the region is being driven by sound policy, by excellent execution, and by making sure that we are simplifying doing business and having a very rapid decision-making process. And we're seeing the results in that growth. And when we look at the Kingdom of Bahrain, what we have put in place coming out of COVID in October 2021, we announced the Kingdom's economic recovery plan and very clearly outlined what we are aiming to achieve. There are six sectors that we are focused on and those six sectors are banking, telecoms and digital services, manufacturing, logistics, oil and gas and tourism. And we're putting everything into those sectors. Today in Bahrain's GDP, 83% of GDP is non-oil and the largest sector in the economy is banking and finance. So we are rapidly making diversification efforts. And what we have found is that whenever you simplify procedures, whenever you go in and get government out of the way and allow the private sector to move at the pace they want to move and give them the enablers that they need, which is mainly a very good jurisdiction in terms of dealing with disputes and high quality infrastructure, things thrive. And that's what we aim to do in Bahrain to continue along this path of growth and ensure that we are a good, solid service centre for the wider economic growth in the region that we see led by the larger economies, mainly of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Can I pick up on that, Sheikh Salman, if you allow me? Often when we look at the Gulf, these priorities are similar between different countries and outsiders will often say they're competing for a very similar pot or competing for similar trends. How do you respond to that? The pie is growing so quickly that you can't be competing. What we're doing is we need... The pie currently is growing so fast that competition is not even on the table. Everybody's trying to grow their service sectors, grow their participation, grow their GDP, and there's a lot of synergistic benefits. Tourism is a great example. When we look at the targets that are being set for tourism across the region, and then we look at the efforts that are being made for joint marketing, for joint packages, for joint holidays, it is a great result not only just for the GCC, but also for economies around the GCC that participate in that growth. Because then you're talking about even tapping into larger population markets, like Southeast Asia, like North Africa, and how they can also drive and benefit from that flow of people and be positive participants in that. So bottom line is the pie is growing so fast that at this stage we need more and more partners joining on that journey. Mr. Afad, I want to turn to you, please. Minister of Investment is an incredible portfolio to have as we see the dynamics in Saudi Arabia. The ambitions are big, the projects are impressive, and have the world's attention. How do you maintain the course, the vision, when there are developments, be it regional instability, be it changes in the global outlook? What's that steadfast vision, but also importantly, are there reforms that Saudi Arabia still needs to make and what are they? Well, thank you very much, Amina, thanks to the OF and thanks to Sheikh Salman for his humility and kind compliment. And I fully agree with everything he said in terms of the macro, the sizing, the complementarity that he alluded to between the GCC countries. We are a common market that has been around for over 20 years and this common market, this road to integration between the GCC country is extremely necessary and it has served us extremely well. Our combined GDP has increased by multiple times. Trade, external trade with the outer world has increased a lot more than it would have if we had remained independent of this integration. And our inter-regional trade has also multiplied in the last 20 years and is going to take off in the non-oil sector of course as we go forward. I think as we talk about the non-oil economy consistently across the region, this is where the growth is going to be. This is where the individual country strategies are that are complementing each other and that are serving this interdependence and integration between GCC country. Saudi Arabia is very committed to working with our GCC partners represented on the panel and our private sector companies are also fully embedded in each and every nation of the GCC as we create value to each other and bring value chains across the region in a very globally robust way. I think as we look at global trends, there is of course the energy transition and the kingdom strategy and I believe the same goes for the other GCC countries. We're intent and we will succeed inshallah of remaining the region that provides energy solutions, energy reliability, energy affordability to the rest of the world but it's going to transition more to a decarbonized, environmentally sustainable mix of energy that will have oil and gas continuing for a long, long time but of course we'll bring the green, blue and other forms of energy that's emerging and that is a huge growth potential for the kingdom but I believe it's going to be done at a regional level and we've seen Saudi companies invest heavily in the Emirates, in Bahrain, in Kuwait, and in Oman as we build this sector of renewable energy and hydrogen. The other trend of course is digital transition with everything from cloud computing, AI recently and all of the capabilities that digitalization brings and I think the region is going to continue to lead in this area. I think connectivity, speed and what have you is all a big enablers for industries, for logistics, for travel and tourism to come to the kingdom and take into the region and take advantage of this digital platform that is complementing. Of course we're endowed in the region in addition to what I mentioned with a fantastic location. I think as trade becomes re-engineered globally from where it has been to build the resilience, the Middle East is the place where people are looking at because we're close to Europe, we're right next door to Africa and of course we're in Western Asia and we have the infrastructure, the physical infrastructure, the ports, the airports, we have great companies like Agility, we have Hanadi with us that are also allowing global value chains to be re-engineered with the Middle East right at the core. And last but not least is the global trends around demographics, aging populations and declining interest in blue collar jobs in some region. And one thing Sheikh Salman the Dimension is we have 60 million highly educated, young, driven people that love to work, love to innovate, love to invest in startups and they're working together amongst themselves but they're working with the rest of the world. Capital is a big connector to everything I said and I think that everybody knows that the region is long on capital and the capital we have linking it with global capital whether it's in public markets and private markets and different instruments allows us to bring investments at scale not seen anywhere else today. And I think the most important thing, the most important thing in a turbulent world today is political stability, long-sighted vision, consistency in those policies and also in the regulations below them and the world today is longing for a combination of that economic stability, political leadership and stability, infrastructure, physical and digital, capital and a private sector in the region that we're very proud of. Companies in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC have risen to become global leader. They're no longer national and regional leader and they're a big magnet to bring investment. Lastly, the GCC is attracting FDI into the GCC at more than twice the average rate around the world when you compare it, when you normalize it for GDP and I believe we're at an inflection point where that's going to increase and we've seen it in Saudi Arabia and I believe my colleagues will speak about it and FDI is not just about capital, I mentioned we're longing capital but it brings know-how, brings access to market and it brings global integration for us. Because that's one of the big changes just on your last point. One of the big changes we've seen is that for the countries of the GCC now it's not just about what is the transaction, what is the dollar sum that's coming out of a deal but it's really the joint investment, the expertise, the learnings. Tell me how can the investment strategy as Minister of Investment has changed and made perhaps in a decade. I think a decade ago, we wouldn't be having a conversation like this. I think what we do in Saudi Arabia is we look at every sector of the economy and we have a specific target for every sector. What is the productivity of that sector going to be in 10 years and 15 years and what do we need in terms of capability, not just assets, human talent, IP, access to markets and based on that we find the right partner, we find the right investment scheme with the right long-term line of sight and we invest for those long-term journey. If the private sector can do it on its own, our role as a government is to provide the ecosystem, to provide the regulation, to provide the financial framework so that they could access financial markets. If the private sector doesn't yet have the appetite for it then government entities like sovereign wealth funds will step in to catalyze those sectors that there is hesitancy from the Saudi private sector. They will co-invest with international partners or do it on our own and then gradually exit and turn it to the private sector fully. Mr. Ikawari, if I can pick up on that point of sovereign wealth funds and their role and how you balance trying to grow and foster a strong private sector but at the same time having the strength of the government doing its investing and its project. Thank you, Mina. First of all, thank you for hosting me in this session and I'm happy to be with my colleagues here. In this session it's a very important subject, Gulf economies, I think it's a very important subject and I will not repeat. I would like to follow in what Sheikh Salman mentioned and also his Excellency Al-Falih what they mentioned about the importance of the GCC and the role GCC is playing today in the world economies in many ways, whether in the energy supplies, whether in the growth in the economies and the opportunities, providing yet also the capital as you mentioned and this leads us to your question and about the sovereign wealth funds and the role of sovereign wealth fund is one of the example of the strength of the GCC countries which is, I mean, it's one of the champions because we have so many national champions in the GCC. I am sitting next to my friend from Agility and this is one of the champions we have in the logistics. We have many other champions in aviation but sovereign wealth funds is one of them and as you know we have powerhouses in the GCC when it comes to sovereign wealth funds and the way we understand it, sovereign wealth funds they play a very significant role for the future financial sustainability of the generations to come, for the future generations of the GCC and this is mainly the big role for all the sovereign wealth fund but yet they play a very important role in terms of national economies where they also because of the capital availability and they know how, they are able to invest and co-invest with the private sector in many important sectors and sometimes even to drive investment in sectors sometimes not attractive for many private sectors so very important and we have seen this to give an example of Saudi Bef you know they've been very active in the local investments and driving growth and driving, you know, realising realisation of the vision, you know, 2030. So it's very important I think for the sovereign wealth to drive it and the way they can do it through venture capital, supporting startups as well as going to sectors that sometimes not attractive and joining hands with the private sectors and adding capital sometimes seed funding you know these investments. So this is a very important role and I think we should not, while they play the big role in the future the what we call it the future generation fund you know I mean and to act like you know this is a source for, you know as part of the diversification for the economy yet it's very important they have to really support the local economies giving the position they are in they know how and the capital as I mentioned. So these are really very important and I must say also I mean speaking about this I think speaking about Qatar, you know last week we have launched our national development strategy the third national development strategy as you know I mean in 2008 we bought the Qatar Vision 2030 and I'm happy that to see and this is one of the I think the importance why the GCC is so successful because we have a long term view in Saudi 2030 I know in 2031 and also Bahrain you know 2035 2030 2030 also so we have this long view you know and create the same thing and on one as well you know so we have this long view and it's very important that we work toward this long term vision and to become more disciplined and executing you know the strategy so in the S3 because in the S1 our intention was to build a very strong champions local champions for the brand building and the business development which we have done you know in the aviation side in the finance in the telecom in many other sectors you know in the airlines and then we moved and to build state-of-the-art infrastructure we have spent more than 200 billion dollars infrastructure you know which is our second state which helped us to host the best World Cup ever you know in Qatar 2022 so and that now we are nearly we have an excellent you know foundation where we can build our NDS3 which is economic growth economic diversification private sector enabling and to move away from government led economy to private sector led economy we believe always you know the private sector is very important for the future so if we are talking diversification growth you know government yes you can do it you have the capital you have the guts but you know I mean the private sector is the most important and they are very important even to talk about demographics about you know creating jobs you know for the future because and to become more efficient and more effective and to run you know the business is better yet to help the government and take some of the burdens in the government from the government so this is our strategy and we as I said we have launched it and we look forward you know also we are having a session later on about Qatar strategy so but the same thing as I say as we speak about our position I see the same thing you know for all the GCC countries and this is I think the vision and the discipline have been shown you know in terms of like excluding the plans is very important and yet I should not forget you know the role of the you know Gulf Cooperation Council I'm glad that his Excellency Justin Dewis with us here he's the secretary general for GCC and there are so many initiatives they have been taken today by the GCC whether the Economic Union, Custom Unions you know free trade agreements and congratulation in recent agreement I mean signature of South Korea of FTA and also recently also the Pakistan you know FTAs and I know more they are coming because of the you know advance negotiations advance negotiations you know and so these things are very important this you know building this you know cohesiveness and connectivity between the GCC and sharing information and yet and I agree with the Sheikh Salman the pie is growing so it's I think and I don't think we compete we complement each other and I think this is what I see can we see that complementarity go to the next level soon do we see Economic Union currency where are we on that how do you see it absolutely I think it makes sense you know this is from my opinion it makes sense we I mean we have so many things in common you know we share the same economic structure the same you know the same you know families the same you know origins language everything you know I think there are some and you know I think we are in a position where we can really make a very strong economic power you know moving forward you know the GCC and we have all the tools of course I mean sometimes you know things takes longer than it should but you know at the end of the day the intentions are there and the willingness is there and this is the most important things and we're we're happy that Qatar will be hosting the GCC meetings you know for 2024 and I'm hoping that we'll make a break through inshallah through this year inshallah inshallah Mrs. Salah I want to bring you into the conversation because Minister Kauai was just speaking about private sector we've heard from the ministers a real sense that the private sector is imperative growing the private sector enabling it in order to see these visions come through private sector has different dynamics so I want to ask you what your greatest challenge as agility again based in Kuwait but really working throughout the region and the world not just the region how you see the private sectors challenges in the GCC what do you need I think that I think from our perspective in the private sector especially looking at agility and the investments we've done you know especially in the GCC is that the reform agenda's that they have in place is really moving us in the right direction in terms of capital flows in terms of policy reform looking at the free movement of people and goods so if I take a slice of logistics and transportation and all the investments that have taken place here at agility we launch the Merging Market Index which ranks 51 countries from the emerging markets and you have the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE rocking from the top 10 in terms of attractiveness to invest for the private sector you look at how they're earmarking investments in Saudi Arabia over 130 billion dollars you have UAE companies earmarking five billion dollars for strategic transport and logistics assets from our perspective this is all moving in the right direction and that makes us excited so from a agility's perspective what we do is we double down in the region we're earmarking 130 million dollars of investments in 2PL logistics parts in Saudi Arabia we're doing the same in Kuwait we're earmarking the development of a million square meters of land at the same time we have a partnership with GWC we're the second largest shareholder in GWC I go for a housing company and investment in logistics and the same thing with UAE it's home to our digital logistics freight platforms so from our perspective all these reform agendas with the investments and the new policy act sort of as a guiding light to make these markets more attractive and engage the private sector more actively so the assumption that some people might have that the public sector might be crowding out or the government crowds out the private sector in certain areas is the wrong assumption? I think it goes hand in hand I'd argue that it crowds in because if you look at the sort of the timing of the development when these reform agendas have come into play we've worked hand in hand with the government in the development of lands and various different areas for example, we've developed land developing craft areas in order to promote SMEs and enabling them within different countries so I think it goes hand in hand Thank you, Mr. Zabe I want to turn to you now you have an interesting portfolio with the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi and all we're discussing here is kind of again, macro trends the big change is digitization energy transition attraction not only of capital but of talent so from your vantage point in Abu Dhabi how do you see the complementarity across the Gulf but also what are your priorities at the moment? Well, I think for the UAE we've been working hard to ensure that we're a hub for business a hub for entrepreneurs and a hub for new economies in the future now, having said that I think diversification kicks in very fast given the transition that is happening across the world the UAE has a transition like any other country especially predominantly you know, oil has played a big role in the UAE and we have to transition now, identifying the clusters that we're going to be working on is very important, very pivotal so identification of clusters and understanding which clusters that we're going to be in what are the right to play within those clusters and then what is the right to win within those clusters is important so we've identified different clusters and we've identified where exactly we want to win in them having said that, also we need to ensure that we have to deregulate and re-regulate further it's important that there is a clear public-private partnership that is being built especially when economies are being grown across the GCC countries now, understanding that is very important and understanding where the private sector is going to play and where the public sector is going to play we view it as the public sector is going to be an anchor when it comes to economic value add not financial value add so having the financial value add to the private sector it's very important, vis-à-vis the public sector when it comes to economic value add so understanding who's the anchor and who's going to do what in that cluster and in every single area of business is very important another thing is ensuring that the talent is attracted within the region or the UAE is very important so talent attraction is going to be there technology not only as a sector but also as a provider to increase productivity within the GCC and the UAE is very important so in the UAE we're focusing on increasing the productivity as much as we can probably we need to double the productivity if we want to be competing if we wanted to open up and have access to markets across the world then we have to increase that productivity because competition is not going to be only within a region is going to be global so hence in improving technologies within education is going to play a big role but not as in normal education that we know it but actually education in the future of education is going to be a big role another thing is life sciences is also something that we'll be focusing on and creating a haven where ensuring that people can come to the UAE or the GCC where they can work, live, have fun enjoy their life and build the family within the UAE is very important to us hence tolerance is very important within that so all in all this is where we're at currently Can I ask you about emerging industries emerging technologies Abu Dhabi is and the UAE is really standing out in terms of thinking about fintech what's the risk appetite for some of these emerging industries but also technology especially when we think about fintech and crypto well there is a misconception about the risks risks is in every single sector that you go into so from the side of the government is understanding which regulations that you're going to put there and it's important that you create a risk-based regulator hence the government takes the risk or the regulator takes the risk and the investor takes the risk putting the right regulations is going to be very important in here so we've done that and we've constantly and continuously improved the regulations to actually align with best practices and ensuring that that risk is mitigated throughout so understanding the industry and understanding where we're going fintech is going to play a big role but more than that unlocking private markets is going to be a bigger role so equities market is fine it's unlocked it's heavily regulated however private markets is where technology with blockchain and going forward is going to be the bigger play now we've got trillions and trillions of dollars sitting in private markets that are waiting to be unlocked so putting regulations to unlock those private markets is going to be the next big thing and I think that's where I think for the GCC we can tap into that and I think it's going to unlock a lot of economic value add to all these countries and Mr. Jaffer I want to turn to you we've spoken about diversification energy transition hugely important you know Crescent is hugely important for energy but also when you're thinking about from the private sector what those opportunities are but what are also your challenges? Thank you so first of all stepping back I think we're all hearing that the region is masha'Allah going through a golden age of growth and progress but I think it's important to recognize that's not something that's happened suddenly yes we've had higher energy prices recently but we're really now enjoying the fruits of visionary leadership and decades of stability and those are the two key elements that the private sector needs that the economy needs anywhere I think we step back and out hearing things like the government should be enabling the private sector hearing things like government trying to attract talent from around the world we're not hearing those things from many other parts of the world today including Europe, developed countries the narrative has often gone against those so I think we need to recognize how special that is obviously there are some good macro factors at play we've got inflation coming down interest rates coming down a young and more educated population the talent attraction of expats and the energy prices that have been stable I mean relatively high but also stable but just to touch on three things which I think have been fundamental one is the investment flows and yes they're in the tens of billions of dollars annually but I think importantly and for the first time we're seeing in and out flows in and out so sovereign wealth funds now in the region have grown 70% in the last five years and are now four trillion dollars which is a third of the world's sovereign wealth funds and they're making strategic investments around the world which is not only part of economic diversification income diversification but is adding to the political clout of the region but then similar amounts of tens of billions of dollars of FDI coming in so it's reached 5% of GDP now which is the highest of any region secondly on energy and again in the presence of our teacher Minister Al-Falih in that sector I think the GCC has half the world's oil reserves roughly speaking a very large percentage of the world's gas reserves and thanks to Qatar and other reserves and those are still actually largely undeveloped at a time when demand is going up and we're seeing Europe wanting more LNG prices in Asia and so on and then what was touched upon with the energy transition the energy sources of the future whether it's new forms, green hydrogen solar, the lower cost solar power in the world these are being proven up in our region because of the ability to invest and because of the availability of those energy sources and finally on the infrastructure and we could have a whole session just on that but there have been major investments in both the digital and the physical infrastructure across the region including connecting the region together so I think it's positive what our challenges obviously there are risks could there be an energy shock worldwide that's the risk for the whole global economy that's being discussed here in Davos we saw it last year it seems less likely this year could there be God forbid escalation conflict-wise in the Middle East there are of course risks but at the moment the stars are aligned and even in the case of tourism where some other parts of the region have been affected we haven't seen that in the GCC and tourism has been sustained Part of the challenge of having little time of course we're speaking about the Gulf region it sits in a volatile environment at the moment devastating war of course in Gaza but also the concerns about the Red Sea and beyond there are too many protracted conflicts to talk about we haven't spent time on this panel speaking about because we wanted to actually take the time to talk about what is happening in the Gulf and also opportunities there we have time for questions please indicate to me if you'd like to ask a question and if you can stand as you ask your questions so that you can be seen so gentlemen here and if you could kindly identify yourself Hello, good afternoon my name is Michael Süß from Early Count Switzerland one question to the whole group here is how you maintain your workforce or how we create your workforce but we see actually in US we are short on workforce in US we are short on workforce in Britain we are short on workforce in Germany despite the migration because that's the wrong migration so will you generate in the GCC countries the capable workforce you need for the growth out of your population or will that be a war for talent of migration in Switzerland here we have almost 30% non-Swiss people working here Switzerland has never given up its identity I'm a Swiss migrant I'm from Bavaria it's a southern part of Germany so how you will handle that because this will be decisive besides the capital and all the other stuff if you don't have a capable workforce you will not make it OK, Chef Selman, do you want to say it? If I may Thank you for that question and that's a challenge globally and we are very lucky to be in a region where we have a growing population and we have a young population and have been able to provide them in the GCC with a high level of education and more recently a high level of digitization and therefore the first problem that you have in any country is if the population is declining then you have nothing to work with then the next issue you have is you have areas of the world where you have rising populations and young populations but there's not enough education infrastructure to bring them in to be economically additive and so they end up being a burden on the state the sweet spot that we're seeing in the GCC is that we have young populations we have a high growth rate and there is a very high quality education system that's able to transform them to be economically additive and today I'll give the example of the Kingdom of Bahrain one of the main attractions when companies are coming and looking at FDI is they say oh, we have the ability to hire Bahrainis and we have the ability to also have an open market where we're able to bring in labor so that combination of the fact that one of the attractions is the labor force the challenge is to ensure that you have skill sustainability and today for example with AI coming in that you embrace the technology and make it a center where people work with it and become experts in it or you very quickly get left behind and that's one of the challenges that we need to ensure skill sustainability is there across the board just to add to that I think the GCC has hidden, untapped or in the process of being tapped potential and that's a female workforce so if you look over the years you have countries like Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain where women's participation is growing to over 50% in the workforce you have KSA which has grown over the past few years to 47% of the workforce but the specifically interesting part about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia it's largely taking place in the private sector so there is definitely a hidden untapped potential which I think is yet to flourish Minister Al-Fadir Yeah, I would add to the excellent comments that have been made is that the region has also evolved a little bit from where the government had the primary responsibility of training and the private sector complained that there is a mismatch between skills, attitudes and the jobs they require and this has been a problem we have to acknowledge to a public private partnership where the government participates and providing some of the vocational training some of the education infrastructure the private sector provides the skills, competencies, productivity that they demand from the incoming workforce and the two work together and the government provides a lot of funding to reduce the cost of training but I think something that has been said repeatedly is that the Gulf has the perfect model in my opinion and I have worked around the world where you're blending to the maximum the capabilities of your population and they are not insignificant and topping it off with the best that you can get globally and providing the living standards, the quality of life, the attractiveness where you see it from around the world people want to move to the Gulf they want to raise families they want to scale up and the indices of the future that are growing at scale in the region and we're seeing it certainly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mr. Qawadi wanted to come in Thank you I think it just, I mean actually to some I would like to add to what he said Sheikh Salman and Excellency Al Fala you know I mean the answer is very simple I mean we're investing in education we're investing in the development of the human capital in the countries and it's a huge it's one of the pillars of our visions and strategies and it's coming up very strongly now we see the results yet also what Excellency Al Fala mentioned about that we are open to talents and the GCC has been a home for many international expertise as well from all the continents so we have the access we are very open in terms of attracting capital so even human capital even if we don't have enough in terms of population although we're growing at a good rate but still we are open and we have certain regulations and policies our migration policies have been very much open in terms of welcoming talent with their families and also to build generations in the region so we are open both ways developing our own nationals in the same time open to you know talents everywhere in the world Mr. Jeffrey wanted to No just to quickly add to that and totally endorse all that was said about the on the talent but also in terms of the capital investment so the region last year in 2023 awarded contracts of 205 billion dollars but more than ever before we're seeing that those contracts are tied with local content and talent development which was different from decades ago it's really not just about building something but actually about empowering, enabling, enhancing the local private sector and developing the talent at the same time so that blending of the capital investment with the talent development is I think what's so special Okay so we're nearly out of time but I'm going to ask each of you please in one word or one sentence tell me from your vantage point as we're beginning 22 and 24 in a global setting where we're expecting elections we still have high inflation rates and they're not coming down as quick as people want interest rates at an all-time high globally What one thing are you watching are you looking out for that can impact your work? Minister Afaila, I start with you Well the truth is we've got a wide aperture we're watching everything and opportunistically jumping on those emerging opportunity but also in a very agile way reacting to any threats or challenges I think the talk of everywhere not just where F is AI and we're going to invest and double down on our digitalization strategy I think interest rates will be a challenge and I think we have to make sure investors have means to offset those through access to innovative financing tools to make sure that we don't slow down as interest rates persist at these levels Minister, at what? I mean, I think the economic parameters will be good will look good in 2024 in terms of inflation coming to normal ranges in terms of interest rates start we should start the Fed reducing based on their inflation targets we should see a very stable oil prices I think the supply demand is very sufficient so everything should look in a good shape of course, I think the biggest challenge for the area is the geopolitics we have to be careful about that point I mean, we have the war on Gaza this is one thing and this is something as it's completely inhuman and what's happening in Gaza and this is going to affect, of course, also the regional stability is very important so I think that's the biggest challenge but from economical, from business parameters I think things look good perspectives So from our perspective, I mean, we see this region as growing, growing quite healthily and we are airmarked hundreds of million dollars of investment over the next few years so we're keeping our eye on the execution and also opportunistically we think this region is set we're doubling down on it so that's one thing we think is very important and obviously the geopolitics of the region gets us a little nervous Geopolitics aside, I'm not going to make any geopolitical comments, I'll keep that aside AI and the adoption of AI and how it will, it's transformative and the way it manifests itself in different industries will be the biggest transformation since the Industrial Revolution so that's what we're watching So I would endorse the points made by my esteemed colleagues and on AI also the rate of its adoption in different sectors in our region and then to add one new point, I think what happens with the Chinese economy Chinese is an important trading partner of our region across many areas including with energy and really what is happening with that economy I think has global ramifications and for our region as well Minister, this is the admin, this is the admin Technology, I think that's it So whether it's AI or quantum computing or any other kinds of technology probably those trends are going to play a big role and there are additions of that and who are we going to get there So I think technology is going to be the biggest trend going forward So with that, our eyes on technology adoption of AI watching of course the macro trends regionally, globally demographics, the opportunity of young people and the people of our region investment opportunities but of course keeping our eye on the geopolitics these are difficult times in our region inshallah we are able to have a more optimistic outlook politically but at least on the economy and at least in the GCC as we say in Arabic al-adima nama it is looking promising and it's exciting but also not to be blind to the challenges that exist there is complementarity in the GCC and the strength and the unity we see here between the private sector, the public sector and the different countries gives us hope which is always important vision, long-term vision stability but always hope Thank you so much for joining us please come back