Nahed Taher seeks pivotal role in Kingdom’s economic transformation

[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="Reform dreams" ids="76174,76175,76176"] HER ultimate ambition is to move the Kingdom’s economy from being solely reliant upon oil revenues to one based on capital spending in a thriving, job-creating private sector. Dr. Nahed Taher is a prominent Saudi economic analyst. A PhD holder from Britain’s Lancaster University, she specializes in monetary systems, banks, macroeconomics, statistical economics and international economics. Al-Riyadh daily profiles the trailblazing banker and her plans for the country’s economic transformation. As an economist, Dr. Taher’s interests lie in industry and infrastructure building. Rather than merely proffering finances, she assumes joint ownership of projects she supports, a policy that chimes with the principles of Islamic banking. For Taher, her late father was the role model. Himself renowned economist, she credits him for piquing her interest in banking. After studying in the United States for a while, Taher moved to Kuwait and later to the United Kingdom. After completing her PhD degree, she joined King Abdulaziz University as an associate professor. She also filled the position of dean and lecturer at the university. She then accepted a position at the National Commercial Bank as an economic adviser and helped the bank select over 50 highly qualified employees for different departments. Later on she became the CEO of Gulf One Bank in Bahrain, Germany and Kuwait. Taher aspires to improve and upgrade the Saudi economy and employ her knowledge and expertise to achieve this goal. “I strive to apply my education and considerable experience to contribute to the growth of the Saudi economy. I hope to see the economy grow 20 percent per annum and unemployment decrease to 1 percent,” she said while adding that one of the biggest challenges facing the Saudi economy is to create 2 million jobs in four years. “I hope to play a pivotal role in achieving this goal,” she said. Dr. Taher believes that economics majors in Saudi universities tend to focus more on theoretical aspects than on practical ones. The universities should focus on employing experts with high academic qualifications and long-term expertise to teach economics classes, she said. “Only an expert economist with impressive academic qualifications and considerable experience can link theory with practice and impart their knowledge to students,” she said. “The Saudi banking sector is still limited in terms of services. Saudi banks can expand their services only when they have highly-qualified cadre who can implement a drastic transformation plan and create an attractive investment environment for foreign investors,” she added. One of the ways to expand services is to give out more real estate loans based on sustainable assets to ensure repayment of the loan. She also believes that the Capital Market Authority (CMA) will be responsible more than any other government agency in expediting the economic shift and transformation, which Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman hopes to see happening in the near future. “The Kingdom needs specialized banks that can finance small- and medium-enterprises in order to reduce dependency on oil. For example, banks can finance businesses in fields like industry, technology, energy, water and medicine. In order for a project to be successful, it should ensure sustainability in terms of demand regardless of economic fluctuations,” she said.