In Focus: Economy
"With no modern industrial base, and rentier economic structures based on oil and aid, investment is usually limited to real estate and service sectors – non-traded goods sectors, which do not confer the same effects as a more diversified pattern of investment that other more industrial countries have, in terms of upgrading technology and productivity.
In Europe's World, Prince Hassan suggested that a regional industrial policy to develop a modern industrial base in the next generation is a top priority for WANA. "WANA missed the first industrial revolution based on coal and the steam engine, and then the second industrial revolution based on oil and the internal combustion engine. The silver lining now is that the absence of a modern industrial base means that WANA has no ailing industries to rescue."
Can working groups of the WANA consultations with partners and think-tanks in Asia provide a vision for WANA to link with European and pan-Asian infrastructural networks and leapfrog into the third industrial revolution of the post carbon economy? In Europe’s World, HRH Prince El Hassan called for a change in policy orientation from the national to the regional: "Without this sort of regional focus, WANA countries risk sleepwalking into a new phase of conflict and economic decline."
In Europe's World, Prince Hassan suggested that a regional industrial policy to develop a modern industrial base in the next generation is a top priority for WANA. "WANA missed the first industrial revolution based on coal and the steam engine, and then the second industrial revolution based on oil and the internal combustion engine. The silver lining now is that the absence of a modern industrial base means that WANA has no ailing industries to rescue."
Can working groups of the WANA consultations with partners and think-tanks in Asia provide a vision for WANA to link with European and pan-Asian infrastructural networks and leapfrog into the third industrial revolution of the post carbon economy? In Europe’s World, HRH Prince El Hassan called for a change in policy orientation from the national to the regional: "Without this sort of regional focus, WANA countries risk sleepwalking into a new phase of conflict and economic decline."
1 World Bank, Middle East and North Africa Region, 2007 Economic Developments and Prospects (2007).
2 bin Talal, Prince El Hassan. “Policy options for modernizing the Middle East’s industrial base”. Europe’s World (Summer 2009)
3 An economy that depends on oil or foreign aid. For further reading, Kaldor, Mary; Karl, Terry Lyn; Said, Yahia. Oil Wars. Pluto Press: London (2007)
2 bin Talal, Prince El Hassan. “Policy options for modernizing the Middle East’s industrial base”. Europe’s World (Summer 2009)
3 An economy that depends on oil or foreign aid. For further reading, Kaldor, Mary; Karl, Terry Lyn; Said, Yahia. Oil Wars. Pluto Press: London (2007)
The WANA region has the world's lowest employment rate, with an estimated unemployment rate among young people standing at 25 per cent, double the world average. The likelihood of being unemployed is 10 times as high for a new college graduate as for someone with a primary education. The Arab region is expected to experience labor force growth of three and a half to four per cent over the next 10 to 15 years. The World Bank estimates that to keep up with that growth, the region will have to create 55 to 70 million new jobs by 2020 – 55 million just to keep up and 70 million to bring the employment rate up to the global norm.1
The high level of unemployment in the Arab world is explained in HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal's article in Europe's World2: "In a rentier economy3, huge revenues from oil or external financial transfers actually create a disincentive to work. A de-linking occurs between wealth and work, and this de-linking applies to most industrial and agricultural activities. Social and political mobility become extremely limited, and societies turn from production to consumption."
Prince Hassan also wrote, "Rent-seeking tends to lead to policy failure in the form of an intense political competition aimed at gaining short-term access to revenues and benefits, as opposed to political competition over what policies might be in the long-term public interest.
The high level of unemployment in the Arab world is explained in HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal's article in Europe's World2: "In a rentier economy3, huge revenues from oil or external financial transfers actually create a disincentive to work. A de-linking occurs between wealth and work, and this de-linking applies to most industrial and agricultural activities. Social and political mobility become extremely limited, and societies turn from production to consumption."
Prince Hassan also wrote, "Rent-seeking tends to lead to policy failure in the form of an intense political competition aimed at gaining short-term access to revenues and benefits, as opposed to political competition over what policies might be in the long-term public interest.