Alabbar urges private sector to partner governments for an Arab renaissance

Speaking during a session addressing prospects for an Arab Renaissance, at the World Economic Forum's winter meetings taking place at Davos in Switzerland today, Alabbar said: "The Arab renaissance is long overdue. This means that businesses must take a lead role in driving the agenda and fulfil their social obligations to society."

Mr. Alabbar, who is a member of the Executive Committee of the recently established Arab Business Council of the World Economic Forum, announced the Council's new agenda for action, which focuses on three platforms - economic liberalisation and reform, improved governance and the development of human capital. He cautioned that due to the diversity in the region, a one-size-fits-all approach would not be appropriate. Each of the 22 Arab nations should create their own multi-dimentional approach to identify their core competencies and collectively drive the 300 million people in the region towards a better future.

Highlighting the significance of human assets versus oil wealth, Alabbar urged Arab businesses to build centres of excellence where young people from the Middle East are exposed to the best the world has to offer and are encouraged to set new standards of their own. He entreated businesses to tap into the natural advantages of the youth of the region, including their desire for innovation and creativity.

"We should offer them the vehicles to reach new horizons - not simply extensions of our own. They demand of us, quite rightly, the oppportunity to be better than we are - and to produce a better society," said Mr. Alabbar. "And we in business have to start using our considerable influence to make that happen."

Emphasising the need for businesses to integrate into the environments that sustain them, Alabbar stressed that fairer societies are inevitably more stable and more prosperous. He added that if business does not willingly embrace such responsibilities, it will be obliged to do so in future, especially in view of recent developments, where the United Nations had agreed to the first set of comprehensive international human rights norms, specifically applying to transnational corporations.

"The fact is - business, good governance and political freedoms are all inextricably linked - and the bond between them is getting tighter," he said. "If we in the Arab world want to compete on a level playing field, we also have to play by the same rules."

Alabbar also said he had been encouraged by the Arab Business Council's calls for better governance, more accountability and the need for a justice system that provides all parties with guarantees and safeguards.