News Highlights
Author:
Dina Abou Salem,
Web Editor,
Office of Information and Public Relations,
da09@aub.edu.lb
 "Preparing for a New Era"--Full Text
|
AUB Trustee Ibrahim Dabdoub advises on ways to 'prepare for a new era'
The Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB) of the American University of Beirut (AUB) held on March 7, 2008 a Salim Kheireddine/Al Mawarid Bank Lecture Series event with guest speaker AUB Trustee Ibrahim Dabdoub, Chief Executive Officer of the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), entitled "Preparing for a New Era."
OSB Dean George Najjar introduced trustee Dabdoub as "a leaders' leader, a bankers' banker, and a rain maker of a unique kind...He has the gift of transforming everything he touches into gold." According to Najjar, Dabdoub is very well qualified to talk about the new era since he is "one of [its] makers." |
 | Trustee Ibrahim Dabdoub
|
Among the audience attending were Acting President Peter Heath, AUB Trustee Ali Ghandour, Vice President for Medical Affairs and the Raja N. Khuri Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Nadim Cortas, advisor to the president Abdul Hamid Hallab, vice presidents, senior administrators, faculty, and students.
|
As for Dabdoub, he immediately responded to Dean Najjar's invitation so he can "carry a message to a country I consider my own." Observing the ailment of Arab management and strategic development due to their clash with Arab culture, Dabdoub saw the need to separate the two, especially while managing NBK.
Dabdoub also surveyed the causes behind the Arab world's regression in thought and development. |
 | Dean George Najjar
|
"I was reflecting on why we were missing the opportunity to benefit from the prevailing global trends... While we were out breeding dictatorships in the Arab world, wasting our resources on war machines in order to fight each other, the developed world was fostering democracy and respect for human rights. While we were out teaching our children archaic slogans [promoting violence] other countries were teaching their children science and technology. While we were out inflating our public sectors, the world was encouraging entrepreneurships and private initiative," observed Dabdoub.
Nevertheless, he noted a "glimmer of hope" despite the above, which started the transformation of the Arab world, and "convinced me [Dabdoub] to talk to you about the coming oil windfall in the Gulf countries and its ramifications throughout the region." |
According to Dabdoub, it is thanks to strong economies such as China, India, and the United States, that the Arab oil producing countries, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), are going through a major boom which may last for more than a decade, and the ensuing profit is now held in "sovereign wealth funds or the new power brokers in the world." As a result, there is a "shift of wealth, from the United States and Europe to the East, including the GCC."
"It is really a major change that these new power brokers are now shaping global capital markets. Can you imagine the power we will have in the next decade if we know how to use it?" asked Dabdoub rhetorically. |
 | Trustee Ibrahim Dabdoub's talk attracts a large audience at Bathish Auditorium
|
While Gulf countries have recognized the above opportunity, and supported and diversified investments and investors, Lebanon, and other Levant and North African countries still have "a long way to go to make their markets attractive to investors," said Dabdoub. It is only when government and governance are fostered that they may have a chance.
"It is critical for you to attend to these [government and governance] as people's future in most Arab countries outside the GCC countries are still being hi-jacked by the same archaic slogans that held five generations of Arabs back, irrespective of how different the words or faces behind them are," said Dabdoub. |
Consequently, Dabdoub advised on how to overcome the above ordeal. First, he recommended making use of the "coming oil windfall," which he described as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Lebanon also should make an effort to stop its "brain drain" by securing rights of private property and personal liberty including the right to live and aspire for a better future, and the rights of minorities and "losers in democratic elections," said Dabdoub.
Finally, Dabdoub called for business institutions to develop corporate governance and competitive business whose growth derives from "advancements in productivity and the employment of knowledge instead of protectionism, favoritism, and collusion between business and political elites." |
|
