Saudi Arabia and other regional countries can secure a prosperous future by developing world class brands, spending time and money wisely on charity, and empowering the youth to use Internet social networking to impact positively on society. These are the views of a number of delegates who took part in panel discussions at the Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) on Tuesday. The theme of the sessions was “The Arabian Future” and dealt with three main topics: Brand Arabia, Arabian Philanthropy and the New Arabian Generation. The moderator of the first morning session was Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, founder and CEO of Teshkeel Media Group. The panelists were Dr. Ata Ammar, CEO of Bateel; Rafi-uddin Shikoh, CEO and Managing Director of Dinar Standard; Hussam Abdulqader, Head of Communications and Public Relations of Almarai Company; and Michael Benson, Regional Director of Interbrand. The session centered on Saudi Arabia's vision to build the economy and society of tomorrow, bringing prosperity and stability for generations to come. Panelists said this can be achieved by developing world class Saudi business brands, enhancing philanthropy in a variety of ways, and empowering the youth to utilize social networking for the benefit of society. Al-Mutawa said that while the region is not listed among the world's best global brands, some of the region's top companies have increasingly become global players. For example, three of the world's top airlines, as voted for by global passengers, are from the Gulf. “The Kingdom, despite its large companies, is increasingly trying to have its brand propositions felt in both the region and globally,” said Al-Mutawa. “One key aspect to building the future economy of the Kingdom is to promote Saudi Arabian businesses which through value creation and great customer service can reach the hearts and minds of consumers in the region and globally,” added Al-Mutawa. The second session entitled “Arabian Philanthropy: Enhancing the art of giving back to society”, was moderated by Hani Khoja. Dr. Tariq H. Cheema, founder of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, said the Kingdom can improve its social fabric through traditional philanthropy, which Saudi Arabia excels at, but also by donating time and expertise. He stated that Saudi Arabia has a global reputation for excelling at philanthropy across socio-economic classes. “While the concept of philanthropy is universal, the ways in which people choose to give are not,” he said. “High net-worth individuals often choose to devote a portion of their resources to causes that are meaningful to them. In both the USA and Saudi Arabia, some reputable billionaire businessmen have pledged to donate their wealth to charity, making global headlines,” said Cheema. “An alternative to donating wealth is to donate time. In a recent survey, 32 percent of wealthy individuals in Saudi Arabia said that philanthropy was one of their top three spending priorities, third only to the USA and South Africa. In contrast, only six percent of wealthy individuals in the Kingdom currently spend more than five hours a week on charitable work.” “The concept of giving time and expertise as well as cash extends to the majority of socio-economic classes in the Kingdom. In order to develop the Kingdom's philanthropic giving, different tools could include needs-based corporate social responsibility programs, mentoring programs, educational presentations and the assessment, collection and distribution of Zakat (compulsory alms) from individuals, as opposed to just corporations,” Cheema concluded. Dr. Humayon Dar, Managing Director of BMB Islamic, said there are five key success criteria for philanthropic impact: Significant depth, sufficient breadth, relatively fast speed of impact, sustainability, and focus. He said the Kingdom's philanthropic landscape can be improved via activities that require more time instead of money – mainly through research, capacity development, advocacy, and networking. The session on the new Arabian generation, moderated by Al-Mutawa, saw many panelists agree that Arab youth should be empowered to play a positive role in society with the use of the latest media and networking platforms. Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, Head of Emerging Arabia at Google, said that more than half of Saudi Arabia's population is under 25 years of age, similar to other parts of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. “At the turn of the millennium, no one in the world had heard of websites called Facebook or Twitter – one launched in 2004 and the other in 2006,” Tarabzouni added. Today Facebook has over 800 million active users, a population only below that of China or India, whilst Twitter has over 200 million active users. The Middle East and North Africa are one of the major regions that contributed the largest number of new users to both websites this year and in recent years. In Saudi Arabia in particular, there are over four million Facebook users and over 115,000 Twitter users. “Youth in the Kingdom and around the world are using social networking sites to communicate with each other in the Kingdom, region and around the world, exchanging a variety of information and ideas online – with their online and offline worlds increasingly blurred. The impact of such exchanges can be either positive or negative, but the only issue on which there is consensus is that the impact of social networking is only going to widen.” __
