Global Action Forum:
Arab and European Dialogue
Expanding Avenues of Mutual Cooperation
Bi-lateral economic relations focusing on trade and investments are at the heart of the Arab- European relations. In 2004, the European Union's trade relations with the Middle East were worth US$155 billion. Moreover the Middle East accounted in 2004 for 6 percent of all external trade of the European Union. By contrast, the European Union generated about 17 percent of all imports from and exports to the Middle East and by end of 2005, the European Union accounted for about 20 percent of all foreign direct investment in the Middle East going up from US$5.0 billion at the end of 1994 to US$15.3 billion at the end of 20021.
However, in an increasingly global and competitive world today, the relationship between Europe and the Arab world is evolving beyond conventional trade and investment relationships. More specifically, the EU a?" Middle East relations have reached a threshold and a turning point whereby the focus has now shifted towards evolving a long term sustainable strategy of cross regional dialogue, exchange and communications. Both regions have begun to view one another through a new lens of re-discovery that recognises that the ample business opportunities and unlimited trading partnerships can only be fostered and maintained through building bridges of dialogue, exchange and cultural understanding.
That being said however both regions continue to face various challenges and they revolve around the:
promotion of a knowledge based economy;
promotion of an innovative capacity to compete at the global scale,
development of a long-term capacity to create new and better jobs, and
the setting up of a socio-economic environment providing citizens with better quality of life.
Keeping in mind the opportunities and challenges, the Young Arab Leaders Global Action Forum: Arab and European Dialogue aims to look beyond government to government and business to business interaction focusing on areas that could throw up solutions to some of the challenges on either side.
In this context, the forum will bring together dynamic minds from diverse sectors from at least 10 countries from the Arab World including a?" Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; as well as European counties such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing both regions as well as potential collaboration and engagement around three main themes:
Business & Innovation | Science & Technology | Social Responsibility
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