First Broader-Mena Finance Conference

Among the associations were the Federation of German Industries, the Association of German Banks, The World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank and the Munich Conference on Security Policy.

The biannual event under the motto 'Investing in a More Secure World' discussed the need for economic prosperity, the need for investments in both directions.

Operational questions relating to export and project financing as well as to foreign investment in the region were addressed at the conference. Discussions about how to attract Broader MENA investments to Germany were an additional focus of the conference.

From different speakers like the CEO of Mashreqbank, Mr. Al-Ghurair, were stated that they missed a stronger investment approach of the German industry instead of simply selling the products.

Also the banks were asked why they do not engage themself more in the Mena region; a region presented by a number of high profile speakers like Dr. Ahmad, from the Aqaba Special Economic Zone, Mr. Al Herbish from The Opec Fund, Mr. Al Sayyari from the Saudi-German Development and Investment Company, Mr. Chiha from FIPA Tunisia, Mr. Haqqie from the Pakistan Board of Investments.

German banks, as stated by the speaker of Commerzbank, are very much focused now to get their duties done in Germany and may need further to merge to gain a better capitalisation to fit foreign activities. However, Commerzbank is doing well in foreign trade with a strong market share in the Middle East.

The German side was well represented with speakers of the state owned bank KfW, the designated chief economist of HVB Bank Group, Mr. Lamprecht of Siemens, Mr. Thurmann from the Federation of German industry and Mr. Wippermann from the North Africa Middle East Initiative of German Business.

A joint evening with the Munich Security Conference were held by invitation; key note speaker was the president of the federal republic of Germany, and former IMF president, Professor Horst Koehler.

The president strongly reminded the participants, leading politicians, bankers and industrialists that the developed countries agreed 30 years ago to support developing countries by 0.7 % of Gross Domestic Product.

However, no state yet received this level. Development is much needed to reach the Millenium Goal of the United Nations to cut extreme poverty by half till 2015 - which already looks difficult to achieve.