2007

Economic Reform: Flourishing Grounds and Expanding Horizons

Our goal in JEF 2007, is to encourage and assist governments, businesses and community leaders to champion reform and harness its power.

The question of what it will take to keep the momentum of reform and prevent it from derailing, becomes even more pressing, given the current state of world affairs (for example, escalating tension in the Middle East and Shifting global Economic Order).

Happily, many world efforts for economic reform have been successful, but sadly many others have faltered or were blocked and failed to achieve their intended goals.

In the 2007 Forum, we will make "Economic Reform" the focus of intellectual debate and examine it from six different dimensions.

Universalism vs. Particularism in economic reform will be at the heart of this intellectual debate. Citizenship, Corporate Social Responsibility, Education, the Labour Market and Flexicurity, are some of the important related variables that will also be addressed.

We shall also underscore the importance of Energy Policy, Privatization, and Legal and Structural Reform – to the success of any Economic reform.

The Forum will recognize that "Economic" reform is not merely an economic phenomenon; but that it embodies Social implications as well. The 2007 Programme will therefore address the need for a balanced Social Agenda and will introduce the concept of "Flexicurity" as a cornerstone in sustainable economic reform and development.

JEF 2007 will study Privatization as a tool to raise the efficiency of the economic system and increase its competitive posture in an interrelated world. And the role of the Individual, being the object of all reforms, will also be specifically emphasized.

In each Programme segment, our examination will include Local, Regional and Global perspectives. We will showcase stories of success and examine pitfalls and unintended consequences. Some of the stories that will be showcased will be at a national and international level, while others will cover Institutional Reform and explore the tools that help reshape the mindset and culture of those Institutions.

Saudi Arabia is currently riding the wave of the "second boom". This wave brings with it new opportunities but also invites reflection on what may have gone wrong during the first boom in the 1970s and what now needs to be done to avoid the miscalculation and unintended consequences of past plans for economic development.

At the beginning of the new century, Saudi Arabia finds itself geographically at the centre of world events and shifting global alliances and conditions. It also finds itself at the centre of reflection and contemplation on how to direct the prosperity that comes from a boom, both towards building a lasting prosperity and towards the betterment of social and cultural conditions for the region and the world at large.

FLOW OF FORUM

OPENING REMARKS

1 Strategies for Economic Reform: Universalism vs. Particularism
2 The Legal Structure must keep up
3 Flexicurity in Reform: A Balanced Social Agenda
4 People are at the Centre : Social Responsibility & Citizenship Initiative
5 The Role of the Kingdom in Changing the Energy Paradigm
6 Privatization: The Indispensable Tool Conclusion & Wrap up