Fatima Muhammad
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — “Unlike previous years, this year’s Jeddah Economic Forum has not attracted much sponsorship,” said Saleh Kamel, chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, adding, that they are struggling to reel in the requisite sponsorship due to what he referred to as “current conditions.”
Kamel was speaking at a press conference announcing the hosting of the 16th Jeddah Economic Forum on March 2-3. The forum will be held this year under the title “Cooperation Towards a Stronger Economy — Private and Public sector partnerships.”
The idea of this year’s theme is to look into methods by which the private sector can contribute to the government’s vision, while enhancing the collaboration with the private sector to achieve the national transformation in the economy. For this theme to succeed, Kamel said, they have invited officials from different government sectors and visitors from various countries.
He added, “The forum organizers are committed to picking up topics that are of interest locally, regionally and internationally.” These strategies, he added, helped them make the forum “a practical forum rather than a forum of speeches.”
Asked about the recommendations that are sometimes presented in previous JEF forums and were not acted upon, he said that the recommendations presented at the forums are only insights that are not obligatory. "These recommendations are driven from the experiences of participants and their implementation is not mandatory."
Asked about the absence of participation of local universities, Kamel said, “While forum organizers have cooperated with outside education institution, the academic professors here are locked in their universities and are not concerned with public issues and are not therefore effective.”
Speaking about the participation of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare in the forum, he said that a session has been devoted to this and elaborated, “We are waiting for long for a decision that states if sports clubs are to be privatized or not. This needs a political decision.”
Lama Al-Sulaiman, a JCCI board member, said that they would discuss the issues of unemployment and housing in different workshops that will look into opportunities that the private sector can provide to overcome these issues. She added that there would be specific recommendations that can be followed in this regard.
