Arab World needs new economic and political ideologies: Al Gergawi

Speaking at a session focusing on how the Young Arab Leaders Forum can create change, Gergawi said:

"Imported ideologies don't work for us. We need new ideologies generated from within the Arab world. No exterior powers can tell us to change."

The session emphasized the role YAL can play in helping young Arabs overcome the lack of self-belief and sense of frustration that currently limit their potential.

"Arab youth feel that they can't develop themselves," said Hakam Kanafani, Chief Executive Officer, Palestine Cellular Communications and Vice Chairman of the Young Arab Leaders. "This limits their thinking. We need to tell them that they have the ability and the means to develop their creative and scientific thinking."

YAL's mentoring programme is one of the initiatives that will provide encouragement and expertise for Arab entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into successful businesses. "Though we do not provide material support, we leverage our collective experience to evaluate and promote young people's business ideas," Kanafani said.

"YAL has created an extensive support network for young businessmen in the Arab world," said Mustafa Abdel Wadood, Chief Executive Officer, EFG-Hermes, UAE, Egypt. "This is a serious initiative that is making an enormous positive impact among young people," he added.

Tremendous Impetus

Maha Al Ghunaim, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Global Investment House, Kuwait said: "YAL can provide a tremendous impetus for raising the innovative capabilities of Arab youth. The initiatives undertaken by YAL's Kuwait Chapter, for example, have focused on the need to encourage a spirit of creativity."

The first stage of YAL's development is to create a group of committed members who have the potential to be leaders of tomorrow.

"About 70 per cent of our members are from the private sector and the rest from the government sector," said Al Gergawi. "The members are largely from the private sector because this will boost YAL's ability to help stimulate more life in the private sector," he added.

By next year, Young Arab Leaders organisation hopes to have 600 members, 20 per cent of which are women.

"We want women to play an important role in YAL and hope raise their membership to 50 per cent soon."