More new wealth required in the GCC says Al Rouad Group

The chairman of UAE based I Capital, Ibrahim Belselah, told the Leaders in Dubai Business Forum that the rich were getting richer but there was still an attitude among a lot of people that if you were not born into a rich family you had little chance of financial success.

Mr Belselah, a member of the Leaders in Dubai Al Rouad (pioneers) group, there was a need for a Silicon Valley type environment which encouraged innovation and entrepreneurs and made venture capital available to people with ideas.

He was speaking during the Al Rouad Roundtable one of the main features of the first day of the forum which has attracted more than 1800 delegates from 43 countries.

Five prominent Arab business leaders including managing director of Global Investment House in Kuwait, Maha Al Ghunaim; Founder of UAE based Ithmar Capital, Faisal bin Juma Belhoul; chairman of Qatar-based Regency Group, Ibrahim Al Asmakh; CEO of Bahrain-based Addax Bank, Yousef Al-Essa and Mr Belselah took part in the roundtable which was moderated by Cyba Audi from Al Arabiya News Channel.

The group looked at the results of the recent Leaders in Dubai Doing Business in the Gulf Survey which highlighted a lack of skilled labour and bureaucratic delays among the major difficulties facing businesses in the region.

The group agreed a higher standard of education was essential to combat the lack of skilled labour and that governments in the region needed to do more to help business and to play a more active role in regulating markets.

Mr Al Essa said bureaucracy could be a nightmare for people trying to establish a business because of the number of steps they had to go through.

He said it was not so bad for big companies that had staff they could send to wait for all of the approvals but for anybody else it could be a major problem.

On the subject of the recent plunge in GCC stock markets the group called on regulators to be innovators and to take a more active role in controlling the markets.

Mr Belhoul said the markets were being controlled by immature and emotional investors and there was a need to educate investors and for more participation from regulators.
Mr Al-Ghunaim said the markets needed big investors who were prepared to invest for the long term and provide stability.

"Investors have to realise that IPO's are not deposits and that they can go bad.

"IPO's that go bad can be a good thing because they help to educate investors by their mistakes," she said.

Mrs Al-Ghunaim said that despite the volatility in the markets they still held a lot of potential.

The second and last day of the Forum will feature the CNN CEO Debate hosted by CNN anchor Hala Gorani.

Khalid Janahi, group CEO of DMI; Mohammad Hariri, CEO of GroupMed Holding and Fadi Ghandour, CEO of Aramex.