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- [00:00]
A
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for coming here today. Today we have a very distinguished speaker and we're delighted to have her here. On behalf of LSE and the Arabic Society, I'd like to welcome her today. And I'd like to pass you over now to El Anu D Thani who will chair the proceedings today and will give you a much more detailed introduction of our esteemed speaker. Thank you.
- [00:26]
B
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim wa salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Good evening, your Excellency, President of the League of Arab States, Dr. Habib Abseen. Your Excellencies, distinguished guests and diplomats, ladies and gentlemen, I am Al Hanu Daftani, a second year student at the LSE and the former Vice President of the Arabic Society. It is both an honor and a privilege to be able to introduce you to a role model of note, a woman of distinction, Sheikha Hanadi Al Thani. Sheikha Hanadi has distinguished herself as an Arab class businesswoman and is the Founder and Chairperson of Amwal, CEO of Al Wahab City Real Estate Development Project and Deputy CEO of Nasser Bin Khalid Al Thani and Sons Group. She has taken her accomplishment one step further and together with her firm determination, she was named Young Global Leader by the World economic forum in 2005 and voted as Personality of the Year by Araya, Qatar's leading newspaper, for her vision and contribution to the economy. She was named Women CEO of the Year by the Middle East CEO Awards Institute in 2006 for her significant contribution in developing Qatar's economic and social presence in the Arab world. Leveraging on her experience, she conducted and published several research papers on macroeconomic issues in the gcc. What makes her achievements all the more remarkable is the fact that they were all set at a very young age. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure you will agree that the world of Arab economics and business has gained a celebrated role model. Please join. Join me in welcoming Sheikha Hanadi to address you this evening with her words of wisdom on entrepreneurship in the Arab world. Thank you.
- [02:08]
C
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let me start by thanking the LSE Arab Society for inviting me here today and especially thanking Lanoud Al Thani for persuading me to be here today, as well. As a former student of the London Business School and the University of London, it almost feels like coming home. For many of us, the past 18 months have been unprecedented. Much of the world rode on a huge wave of investment and development, only to come Crashing down. The fall has been dramatic and in some cases devastating for economies and communities. While there has been a lot of talk of green trust and turning corners, the truth is that the global economy will take some time to recover. The initial reaction, understandably, was that of damage limitation exercise. Next came the reflection and analysis, and then the longer term solutions. The most important factor is to understand the causes and effects of of this crash and to build from there. It is vital that lessons are learned and shared for the next generation of business leaders and decision makers. There is a legacy of financial instability and uncertainty, and it is they who must ensure that these conditions that led to the crisis are not repeated. They must be financially illiterate, astute, aware of their economic environment, and most importantly, conscious of their actions and their consequences. Everyone from the captains of industry, the policymakers and the private investors must provide their successors with the opportunity to take on these responsibilities with confidence and clarity. The fate of tomorrow lies with the school children, the college students and the young adults of today. We all have a duty to ensure that they are fully equipped to manage those pressures. As US President F.D. roosevelt once said, we cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. In many respects, the Arab world has been an anomaly during this turmoil. Many Middle Eastern economies are linked and to some extent even dependent on the successes of their neighbors. The casualties have been heavier in some certain cases than others. But the common denominator is that we all must invest in our future. But what is the Middle East? The Middle east is a heterogeneous agglomeration of over 350 million people. Maronites, Kurds, Coups, Berbers, Africans as well as Muslims and Arabs, inhabiting a land that spreads from the Atlantic to the Arabian Gulf and from the Saharan desert right to the foothills of Anatolia. So all generalities about the Arabs, their experiences, instinct and style of faith, and even politics must be treated with skepticism. David Gardner of the Financial Times chose the name the Last Chance for his recent book about the region. To understand why he chose such a bleak description of the region, we can look through a crude comparative social and economic statistic. The total manufacturing exports of the entire Arab world has recently been below that of Philippines, with one third of the population, or Israel, with a population that is equivalent to Riyadh. From 1980 to 2000, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Syria and Jordan between them registered 376 patterns with the United States. Over the same period, South Korea alone registered 16,328 and again Israel 7,652. This is the dark side of the Middle Eastern economies. However, in my opinion, one communality and a shimmering bright side in this region is the aspiration of its youth. And so, how and where do we begin? The fundamental starting block must be attitude. There needs to be a sense of ambition, of motivation, of passion, and once again of confidence. A sense of purpose and a desire to succeed are integral. Without these qualities, the game is lost. And this applies to the mentors as much as the people they mentor. I'd like to speak today about two organizations I work with, each one of them targeting a segment of the Arab youth. Injazil Arab is a part of the Junior Achievement Program that tries to install these values into the young people. It is a way to introduce them to fundamentals of business ethics and practices and provide the educational resources to help realize their ambition. One element of Injazil Arab is to harness the skills of these business leaders who understand how essential it is for their own knowledge to be passed on. These young men and women, personal experiences and events are shared to give a greater understanding of the business world around them and most importantly, the potential within them. Since its inception in 2004, more than half a million students have benefited from help and advice of over 10,000 volunteers around the Arab world, including many high profile executives from prestigious private companies. It has added an ingredient in particular to our recipe for the future inspiration. As a board member of Injaz Al Arab and the chairperson of Injaz Qatar, I have seen the tremendous impact this can have. By the same token, I have seen what it can be. Without it, one third of the entire 350 population of the Middle east is between 18 and 25. This means that while the rest of the world is growing greyer, we in the Arab world are growing younger. But how many of those young Arabs have those opportunities? For those that do, how many have the motivation and inclination to take advantage of them? 100 million new jobs need to be created around the Arab world merely to leave unemployment at the levels that we are in today. And a lot of practical help as well as advice is crucial. Things are changing to some extent. There are pockets of assistance. There is a recognition that we need to see some tangible results. Silatec, for instance. SILATEC is a non for profit organization founded in 2008 by Her Highness Sheikha Mozrab Nasser Al Masnad of Qatar to address the critical and growing needs to create new jobs and opportunities for the young people across the Arab World. The word Sila tech comes from the Arab world, Sila Connection. And the organization has created its own unique connections with the private sector, creating commercial initiatives for global businesses to address the challenges of the youth employment while also being able to explore new markets. Through Siletic, we envision a world in which every young person is prepared to succeed, engaged in decent work and actively pursuing their dream. SILATEC is an innovative social enterprise created to meet an urgent need to generate new jobs and opportunities for young people starting first in the Arab world, where the problem is more acute. Silateq is not unique, but it is a great role model for those seeking to make a difference for the future. It is addressing those three key elements, policy, mindset and access and across these pillars, promoting large scale job creation, entrepreneurship and access to capital and markets for the young people. Between July and October last year, the Silatic Index, which measures the views of the Arab youth, gave an amazing insight into just how severe the challenges ahead really are. 8,000 young people from the Arab League were surveyed on their attitudes, thoughts and beliefs. 26 people. Again, 26% of young Arabs say that if they were given a chance, they would leave their home countries. That is really a high figure. What makes it terrifying is that this figure represents the highly educated population and the people who are ready to start their own enterprises and really to benefit their economies. Those that are more likely to stay and contribute to their own economies are young Arabs who would rather work for the government than the private sector. And this is something that needs to be addressed. There is a wealth of indigenous talent in the Middle east and that must be expressed in terms of entrepreneurship as well as state roles. The Silatic Index also provided one of the most valuable profound insights into nurturing this talent and foresight and fostering healthy, ambitious young minds. The one attitudinal factor that increases all three index scores for policy, mindset and access is the perception that children are treated with respect and dignity. This relationship underscores the importance of human development to economic development. Looking at the Arabian Gulf in particular, many of this region's economies have only really come to fruition through the last 40 years. It is not a long history and sometimes it is more difficult to join a race than to start it. A large factor in the success of of these economies has been enormous wealth of natural resources and to some extent that has buffered the impact of global financial collapse. But has it also bred a level of complacency? Has the demand for the private sector growth been less acute? And if so how can we turn this culture around? The discovery of oil and gas in particular brought with it an enormous influx of expatriates keen to take advantage of their own prospects. Much of the logistics, practical and even commercial elements were outsourced and many of the opportunities to learn new skills and experiences were lost. For many expatriates, those high days are certainly fewer and further apart. But the need for foreign investment is as great as ever. Small and medium sized enterprises make up the backbone of many Middle Eastern economies and many of the foreign investors play a part in that. To relocate a company's employee is expensive and time consuming. By far the best option is to recruit from within the country of operation. And that means being able to rely on knowledge and experience in the local team. The goal is not to constantly rely on foreign direct investment. It means that an economy becomes far more attractive when the ease of business, reliability and confidence are not even an issue. The goal is to be able to use that to the best advantage while developing a global workforce to be reckoned with. One of the Middle east initiatives to guarantee jobs for young nationals has been to introduce a quota system which states that companies must employ a certain percentage of indigenous population. It is an excellent way to integrate more of the local force into the private enterprise. But this in many cases, in my view, has been only a band aid solution to really acute problems. And so once again it falls upon the next generation of business leaders to create a great culture of foresight, preparation and sustainability. This generation has the greater access to information than ever before. There is a desire for global citizenship and already a greater awareness of the demands of a successful national and international economy. I believe with those tools and the investment in young people as future leaders, the reliance on natural resources will decrease and the spirit of the private enterprise will flourish. From my own experience in Qatar, I can see those shifts taking place. I can sense the acknowledgement that this is one of the paths that needs to be followed. To be fair, I am very proud that my country had the vision to realize this so early on and place such an enormous emphasis on the youth development as a founder and executive business as founder and executive of businesses it is a relief to see an increasing number of Qatari youth who are now showing an interest and the will to perform to their best ability and benefit their enterprise as well as themselves. Over the last 17 years I have founded companies from a small ladies finance company that became a fully fledged investment bank to a mega real estate development project that has over $4 billion of projects. My team and I have a passion for what we do and the knowledge of how to achieve our goals. We provide a good service with hard work and strong ethics. For me personally, I took opportunities in business and economic education and made sure that I walked away with the very best understanding I could. This is not an accident. This has been a commitment. Again, I'm glad to be here. Hosted by the LSE Arabic Society to speak with the youth and leaders of the Arab future. But wish to remind you that by very definition, young people do not have the maturity to put many experiences into context. And they must trust us, their advisors, that we can take them on the path of fulfillment. There is thankfully still plenty of optimism in those young adults. I would like to leave you with one final statistic. Just over 2/3 of the young Arabs believe that their countries are heading in the right direction. For their sake, I hope so. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your time.
- [18:55]
A
I'd like to thank our guests for being here and Amanda for making this all happen. And now I'd like to open up.
- [19:02]
C
To the floor for any questions.
- [19:05]
A
If you can please introduce yourself before.
- [19:06]
C
You ask the questions. Absolutely. I think developing entrepreneurs is a process that takes place really early on in life. The problem is that our education systems don't develop entrepreneurs. Our mindsets, our societies really encourage us to think as a herd rather than personally. So what we see through the organizations I work with, Injaz works with school children from the ages of 8 right up to 14 to encourage a way of thinking that is out of the box, encourage confidence in what they do and understanding of the environment. Silatic by the other hand, works with job seekers just out of university. Now Silatic has a very, very well diagnosed solution for it. It looks at mindset policy as well as process. And what you're speaking about is policy. But believe me, even if we had the most encouraging policies in the Arab world, there are a lot of work to be done within our youth, within the mindset process. So what we do through SILATEC is that we work on three levels of understanding. Hopefully that our governments will get on the wagon and start encouraging entrepreneurs. But I agree with you, the bureaucracy of the Arab world is like any other way in the third world. It kills entrepreneurship. But it's as well society mindset that promotes these changes. You know, this is a very good question to ask governments In Qatar we have recognized that. I speak about my own experience in Qatar. We worked with the Ministry of Education through the skills that we wanted to promote to children. And injaz Al Harab works through that module to encourage entrepreneurship. A way of understanding personal economics, way of understanding the world around us. But unfortunately, still, some education systems around the Arab world are still sticking to their curriculum, you know, at every level. But yes, there should be an understanding. We have, we have, you know, we've missed the wagon on entrepreneurship as they have been said, although most of our grandfathers and Arabs have been, you know, the first people to encourage trade entrepreneurship. But we've lost it somewhere around the way. I'll tell you one tool I use, scare governments. Actually, governments are facing an acute problem. They cannot create as many jobs as the youth demand in the Arab world. And the only way that you can encourage employment within local markets is to encourage entrepreneurship. 85% of the population of the world is working with small and medium enterprises. We do not understand this factor. Within the Arab world, we still have some kind of tool that says no governments can supply jobs, can do that. So I think, you know, scaring the government. And look, you're going to have this inflow of young people with high inspirations and you cannot satisfy their job. So you have to do something. But this is a process. It is not. You cannot just have a policy saying that we're going to encourage entrepreneurship and by the second day open up investments and so on. It doesn't happen this way. It's a whole process from your educational system and how you nourish your entrepreneurs and how you deal with success and failure, which is a very big misunderstanding within the Arab world. And then on how do you do your systems? I think what Dubai has done, it has encouraged outside investment, but has it actually developed employment for its own locals? This is a question that has to be asked. I think other Arab countries are trying to encourage entrepreneurship for the sake of creating employment for their youth. And this is what I'm speaking about here. I think it's a very important tool. I think we in the Arab world don't understand a lot of tools that are there. First of all, the idea of we haven't had role models from the business circle for such a long time. It usually, if you have a role model, it usually ends up with a disaster. There has to be a shameful thing anywhere there. So role models are very important. Mentoring is very important. Shadowing is very important. The mere fact to see that people who go into enterprise and to establish their businesses are not something out of the blues, because actually we're used to having that being related to this and all of these hassles within the Arab world. So it's a very, very important factor. But as well I do a lot of talks in schools and what I try to do is that I try to show people that this is a job that is being done. You can be this person, you can have your own enterprise, you can start your own business. But it really takes hard work. Commitment for the long term, mentoring, shadowing, all these aspects are very important. I wouldn't say it's difficulties, I would say there are challenges and challenges are there to be met. Challenges don't come from a one day commitment to change the world. They come from a long term process that changes bit by bit. We have been born into these societies and it is upon us to change these societies and the way they think, the way they place us, the way they stereotype us as well. So I think this is a long term commitment. Commitment is a very strong word and it is not one day you can change everything. I'll tell you, you know one thing that they do to you when you have a master's or something that you go back home and you think, think you're going to change the world. Well, sorry, the world won't change unless it is ready to change. So you better sit back, try to change, get successes as they come and be very, very cautious because one day you're going to have success, the next 10 days you'll have failures. So just stay at it. Being a woman in business is no different in the Arab world than it is in anywhere else in the world. You have other challenges. But believe me, every woman going into business and taking executive positions have their own challenges. So I just tell you, it's just, you know, I think for us it's better because we can see changes. We are very positive about the changes and I'm telling you, I've seen it over the last 17 years and I'm sure you are going to do much more than I did. Well, there is a part truth in that, you know, you cannot say that this is not true, but this is true as well in everywhere in the world. Connections are very important into business. So you know, it's what you call it, it's called connections over here, it's called wasta over there. But I must. Any success, any long term success needs more than wasta or a connection. You can have a very short lived success, you can have a wasta in connection. But really to maintain your success over the long term you really better work hard on that. So societies are changing, developing economies are developing, all the corporate governance, laws are developing in our economies. And these corporate governance laws are there to ensure that vasta connections are not used in the way that they were used in the past. I ask you, how can we make the private sector more desirable to be a workplace for the young Arabs coming from abroad? No. Why would you say that? I'll tell you one thing. I'm against discrimination. I'm against discrimination for gender. I'm against discrimination for nationality and expatriates. I'll tell you one thing how we can prove ourselves. We can prove ourselves if we go back to our labor markets, really take the jobs that are applicable to our experiences and our degrees. The problem, there is a mindset problem we had, especially in the Gulf. We inherited a welfare state that meant that anyone graduating with a bachelor degree goes back to be a mudir. And this doesn't happen. You will get the job that is applicable to your experience and your skills and your education. Now it's up to you to prove yourself. And things are really happening. Change is happening all over the place. Opportunities are there in every aspect in the government, in the private sector. And I think it's for the individuals themselves to go look for these opportunities and not wait for opportunities to come to them. I think what we're trying to achieve here is that local companies should have these opportunities for their youth. And global companies can play a. A good role in promoting employment of local indigenous population and transferring the skills and the knowledge base into these populations. You know, I think what we're facing now in the Arab world is really an acute problem of unemployment. And this really spans from the Gulf states where the numbers of unemployment are not very. They're very shimmered about right into the Levant area through to the Maghrib Al Arabi. So what we're trying to do is that we're getting this foreign investment money to really invest and to build knowledges within the local labor market rather than to bring the expatriates back to the Arab world. Absolutely, absolutely. Absolutely. But this is happening. I think globalization has meant that we cannot go only in our borders. If you need to succeed, you have to be competitive on the region and on the global basis. And this makes it more important. But again, looking purely at financial terms, it is much more efficient to really employ your local labor rather than to bring someone from abroad and just plug them into the economy. But this is not happening. This hasn't been happening before. We see now it started happening. I don't think there is an answer to that. You know, if I could say no, I would, you know, I would deny myself the opportunity of being educated in the best universities, live an experience that has matched none. But again, the discovery of oil has its benefit, but it came with a lot of disadvantages. And one of the advantages that we see is the Dutch effect, the complacency within the labor market, a skewed labor market that we did not price the local individual at the right price. So we have a lot of challenges within that, but I think we're facing that. You know, what has happened in the 70s and 80s with the welfare states of the Gulf is no longer there. You have a very progressive leadership that looks into their problems. And one of the problems is that how do we diminish any kind of negativeness that we got out of the oil booms of the 80s? So I think, yes, this is a question that can be answered yes and no. But you cannot deny the benefits of oil and natural resources in the Arab Gulf. This is a very good point. And it's actually starting now. We have a lot of grants that are within Qatar foundation, which has most of the foreign universities. But I think, yes, some of the private sector enterprises are giving grants to students and making sure that they come back and work within their labor force. This is a necessity and it's happening, but it's happening around the whole of the Gulf, in the Emirates, in Saudi Arabia, everywhere.
- [32:22]
B
Like to present something very small as a thank you for accepting my.
- [32:35]
C
Wow. This is not small at all. Thank you. Thank you very much.
- [32:51]
A
Thank you so much for attending today.
- [32:53]
C
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
- [32:55]
A
It was a very interesting lecture. I'm sure you all agree that we've learned a lot today. And I see before me a lot of the youth of the Arab world. And I think it's down to us to try and improve a lot of our country. Thank you very much.
- [33:09]
C
Thank you very much. Thank you.