RIYADH: This year, the Saudi delegation to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, will feature, for the first time, a “Saudi House.”
The centralized hub will serve as a meeting point for government officials, business leaders, and other stakeholders participating in the forum.
“Saudi House was designed to facilitate the participation of all the (Saudi) government entities taking part in Davos in one location,” Faisal Alibrahim, the Saudi minister of economy and planning, said in an interview with Arab News.
“We think putting everyone in one place will create the vibrancy that can demonstrate and echo the vibrancy we are seeing here in the Kingdom.”
Speaking ahead of the trip, he spoke of the importance of the Davos summit as a platform for dialogue and collaboration.
“We’re going there because the Kingdom today is a more integrated player,” Alibrahim said.
“We’ve learned more about what we need to do and what we need to achieve, but we also learned more about what we can offer to our partners, to people from all around the world,” he added.
Using this opportunity to create a positive impact on the global economy, Alibrahim will champion a key call in Davos for global leadership to move beyond tepid economic growth and embrace a more ambitious, “intrepid leadership-led” approach.
“Today, the world is looking at two things that sometimes can be seen as in conflicting directions,” he said. “One, we’re at this tepid growth trajectory today, between 2.7 percent and 3.2 percent, according to the World Bank or the IMF, and we’ve been in this economic stalemate for a few years for various reasons.”
He highlighted the stark contrast between this sluggish economic growth and the immense potential unlocked by technological advancements and innovation.
Alibrahim argued that a new era of “intrepid leadership-led” growth is essential to bridge this gap. “We need bold leadership,” he said. “We need to move from tepid growth to intrepid leadership-led growth that can really bring the two together and unlock the potential of the globe. That’s the wider theme.”
This is part of a full interview with Alibrahim, which discussed the importance of a stable Middle East for global prosperity, attracting foreign investment, how the Kingdom is shielded from external shocks and geopolitics, and balancing ambitious giga-projects with prudence, among other topics.
