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Outspoken chief executive of Kuwaiti telecoms giant Zain, formerly MTC told delegates that Gulf governments, with the exception of Dubai, has "slowed down the pace of economic development". Shaikh Gabr, chairman and managing director of the Artoc Group in Egypt agreed and said: "The private sector has played on the outskirts for too long. The private sector should be given greater value and importance by our governments."
Dr Nahed Taher, CEO of Gulf One Investment Bank in Saudi Arabia, said that high wealth existed in the region, but equally alongside high unemployment. "Until now hardly any of our wealth has been invested in production and infrastructure and instead all in real estate. Saudi is the most privatised country in the Gulf and the government needs private sector money," she said.
"I am financing one of the largest projects in Saudi, the US$7bn railway that will connect West to East, and the government can't take all of the cost and has to pen it up to the private sector. There is a funding gap and we are here to fill it. In the water sector, for example, the GCC has 60% of all the water desalination capacity, but zero technology and GE is investing heavily in this sector."
Dr Taher added that Muslims should potentially "give away" their Zakat - the 2.5% of income Muslims give annually to the poor - to small and medium sized businesses rather than the needy. "We should give our Zakat to SMEs. Instead of giving people food we should give them jobs. They are the lifeblood of the economy. In Germany 98% of its economy is made up of SMEs, we have 3% and this is why we can't grow. If we don't change this then we won't be big."
