Inter-regional investment has a role to play in addressing these concerns, but that

has to be accompanied by economic reforms and regional policy changes, panelists

said.

Abraaj CEO Arif Naqvi said: People are more worried about the transition and
succession, rather than the fundamental issues that affect the economy. Egypt has
gone from being the breadbasket of the region to one that has systemic problems in
agriculture. Its industry has not found its niche, and unemployment is still an issue,
but at least I see a government that is willing to engage with the private sector.
"We have to stop and think why are these protests taking
place," Naqvi said, citing figures of the region's high unemployment rates and
burgeoning youth demographics. "What it means is that people are not inherently
unhappy they are in need of opportunities." "Egypt's problems are quite different
[from Tunisia]," he said. "Egypt is a very stable place for foreign investment. Jobs
are being created, it is a reform-oriented government, and they are focused on
bringing business in on a level playing field with local businesses."
The recent trend of Gulf governments to invest in
infrastructure Qatar and Saudi Arabia have launched multi-billion dollar plans for
spending on institutions, social resources and transportation was one possible
way that economic development could spread, Naqvi reasoned
Naqvi added. "Egypt is not alone," he said. "Governments in
this region [should] focus on the business of governance, and not on the business of
management. We still have a tendency in this region of governments running large
corporations because they provide employment. In our part of the world, the
growing focus should be on privatization. We need to start focusing on innovation,
we need to start evolving our thinking and our education processes towards the
needs of the region."

Saeb Eigner, founder and CEO of London-based financial services

firm Lonworld, and a Governor of the London Business School Said:
"Saudi Arabia has its own case of legitimacy in its government and its leadership,
whereas in North Africa there is less of that sustainability of regimes and heirs," "It's
a totally different structure, and you can't say what happened in Tunisia is going to
happen in the Gulf. The Tunisian president came to power 23 years ago on the basis
of being in power for two years. It was a very long two years. But here, there are
different issues, and the House of Saud has legitimacy. You can't paint them all with
the same brush, even if they are all in the same region."

"This region has one of the lowest [regional trade] rates in the world.
The key thing is how you get labor and capital to migrate freely between countries.
"In the Gulf region, they have accelerated the rate of development, and become
much faster developers than the rest of the region, which is not what one thinks of
the Gulf," Eigner continued. "What they've done in a relatively short period of time
has been tremendous, compared to the other countries which are much longerstanding as investment places. I think they have to push some others to reform, by
working to invest in their countries, and set the terms by which we will be willing to
invest in Tunisia, Morocco or Egypt."
Governments in the region, Eigner said, will have to re-think how they
view the use of technology, in view of the recent experience in Tunisia. "Young
people have embraced technology and have invariably embraced it for positive and
good," he said. "We keep thinking about it with a negative connotation, but there
also is a positive side. They seem to culturally understand right from wrong, and we
always think the Internet and information has a dangerous element. I think the
youth, because they are better educated, are mature enough to make these
distinctions."

John Fraser, Chairman and CEO for UBS Global Asset Management
Said: If there was a lesson for any Arab country that watched Tunisia's civil unrest
with concern, it was that economic gains in the region had to be more widespread
among its people. "It's not a very popular message at the moment, but
globalization's message is a simple one: It's that everybody has the potential to
benefit from freer trade, and freer investment, but that doesn't guarantee those
benefits will trickle down immediately," "There are countless examples around the
world where they don't trickle down immediately enough, but there are also
examples of when people do the right thing freer trade, freer investment, and
getting inflation under control that ultimately it provides for the best protection
for those who are waiting for the benefits to trickle down," Fraser added. "I believe
that keeping inflation under control is the best protection for those on the lower end
of the economic scale."

Ulf Henriksson, CEO of London-based Invensys, an industrial

software and systems control company Said: Capital inflows can help, but
one problem, from the perspective of foreign investors, lies in the differences
between countries in the region. "The reason why the MENA region is not up there
with the other countries of the BRIC group is because it is extremely
heterogeneous," Henriksson said. "The greatest similarity may be language, but

even then, it changes. It is highly heterogeneous at a political level. At an economic

level, you have large countries that are relatively poor, with very low per-capita
incomes, and you have small countries that are very affluent. Doing business in a
consistent way is very difficult."