Tuesday Apr 10, 2007
Tuesday Apr 10, 2007
Today, Tuesday, April 10, the World Economic Forum releases its third report on the economic, social and political progress in the region.
Progress has been significant, largely due to the rising prices of oil and gas. The analysis carefully distinguishes three different levels of development, and, for the first time, explicitly attempts to separate the effects of resource-based economies (read: those that sell oil and gas) from more broadly-based economies, by analyzing the world ranking of the Arab economies based on nine separate pillars of development.
| Stage 1: Factor-driven | Egypt, Mauritania, Syria, Morocco | India, China | Basic requirements:critical Efficiency enhancers:impt |
Transition: | Algeria, Libya, Oman, Tunisia, Jordan | Colombia, Thailand, Venezuela | Basic requirements: critical Efficiency enhancers:increasingly important |
| Stage 2: Efficiency-driven | Turkey, Russian Federation | Basic requirements: very important Efficiency enhancers: critical | |
| Transition: 2 -> 3 | Bahrain | Barbados, Czech Republic, Korea | same as above, but innovation factors more important |
| Stage 3: Innovation-driven | Qatar, UAE, Kuwait | United States, UK, Japan | All three important |
The nine pillars are an extension of the categories utilized by the World Bank and the UNDP for human development indices.
- Institutions
- Infrastructure
- Macroeconomy
- Health and primary education
- Higher education and training
- Market efficiency
- Technological readiness: capacity to absorb latest technologies
- Business sophistication
- Innovation: ability to develop entirely new products and services
The first four are grouped as Basic Requirements: Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomy, Health and Primary Education.
The next three are grouped as Efficiency Enhancers: Higher Education, Market Efficiency, Technological Readiness
The last two are grouped as Innovation and Sophistication factors: Business Sophistication, Innovation.
In world-wide rankings:
| Switzerland | 1 | |
| Singapore | 5 | |
| US | 6 | |
| UK | 10 | |
| UAE | 29 | |
| Qatar | 32 | |
| Kuwait | 36 | |
| Bahrain | 39 | |
Examination of the progress of the Free Trade Agreements, beginning with the Jordanian Free Trade Agreement.
Attendees:
Presidents, Ministers
Qatar
Dubai
Saudi Arabia
Jordan
Iran
Kuwait
Bahrain
UAE
UK
USA
France
Germany
China
Sri Lanka
Kenya
Egypt
Oman
Turkey