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What Businesses in the Middle East Can Learn From Innovation Live Dubai
To complement the UAE innovation week, Dubai recently hosted its long-awaited Innovation Live event. Its goal was to inspire creative thinking and highlight the importance of innovation in the Middle East.
Tech gurus from Uber, Google, SoundCloud, Microsoft and 500 Startups have visited Gaza on their own dime as volunteers to mentor startups.
by Christopher M. Schroeder*
If you have any doubt that near-universal access to tech is helping a new generation take control of their own lives, solving problems and building opportunity from the bottom-up everywhere — that “near-universal” means it’s not a phenomenon of the elite, but unleashing talent anywhere it resides — come to Gaza.
We’ve all seen it on the news. Gaza is a land of closed borders, three terrible conflicts in seven years and among the highest unemployment rates anywhere.
At the same time, and even with spotty and irregular electricity, it also has one of the higher levels of education and internet access in the Arab world. More than two-thirds of Gazans are under 24, and nearly all have high written and computing literacy. If the definition of a great entrepreneur is one who thrives in working through and around challenges and creating innovative solutions, it’s no surprise that Gaza is chock-full of them. Half of them, by the way, are women. And they are fighting for better futures there and across the region.
As in most nascent rising startup ecosystems in emerging markets, the pulling together of talent, their ideas, skills, mentoring and capital takes concerted work. In 2011, the global NGO Mercy Corps founded the co-working space Gaza Sky Geeks as an initial effort to convene young entrepreneurs. In 2013, two people joined to take it to a new level: Iliana Montauk, a Silicon Valley native with extensive experience in the Middle East, and Said Hassan, a former employee from the region’s largest e-commerce player, Souq.com, who had just returned home to Gaza.
What, they asked, if there were an acceleration program so prevalent in Silicon Valley and now around the world right there in Gaza? They cultivated the first class of investments by the end of that year. By 2014, more than 600 entrepreneurs applied to their efforts — double from the previous years combined. More recently, Ryan Sturgill, who launched an incubator in Afghanistan and has extensive experience in advising startups across the Middle East, joined as the new director building on its success to date.
Gaza Sky Geeks finds some of the leading startup ideas and entrepreneurs and connects them with mentors, training and coaches to help them turn these concepts into businesses. They also run a network of local freelancers so young people can earn income part-time by doing gig economy work online across the region. Plans are in the works to launch a coding academy to teach young Gazans not just how to code but why to code — what real-world application can software be brought to bear to create new opportunities. The offices are equipped with their own fiber lines and sufficient fuel to power their generators — and keep high-speed internet up — at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
It doesn’t take a lot of capital to get an idea into motion. Entry-level software engineers command $100,000 to $150,000 a year in Silicon Valley, but less than $4,800 in Gaza. With access to the web, this talent is significantly self-taught — accessing the best programming classes from around the world, gathering together in hackathons to improve their skills and partnering with other investors and accelerators in the region, like Oasis500 and PALinnO in neighboring Jordan.
What are these young women and men building? Everything you’d expect anywhere in the world today, often with a local flavor. 5QHQH is a platform to create and share funny online content in Arabic. Baskalet is a gaming studio aimed at Arab culture. MockApp offers professional designers apps to create prototypes, share them and manage projects. KooKies is a community of cooking enthusiasts that also provides access to home-delivered ingredients to create new recipes. Health care, ed-tech, e-commerce and more are all there, driven by a rise in consumer spending and ubiquitous access to mobile.
Inspired by Gaza’s geeks, and understanding the impact that entrepreneurs can have in bettering people’s lives and their economies, Silicon Valley and other global tech hubs have taken note. Tech gurus from places like Uber, Google, SoundCloud, Microsoft, 500 Startups, Endeavor Global, Udacity, Hitachi and more have visited Gaza on their own dime as volunteers to mentor these startups.
Complementing funders like Google, the Coca-Cola Foundation, Skoll and local players, Gaza Sky Geeks leveraged this support and track record to run its first crowd-funding campaign to help fund operations in 2014. They hoped to raise $70,000, but raised over $267,000 within weeks, and from more than 60 countries.
Last month, they kicked off their second campaign, Power Up Gaza Geeks, this time with matching contributions from regional ecosystem leaders like the founder of the largest VC firm there, Fadi Ghandour of the Wamda Group, and Samih Toukan, who founded one of the earlier successful exits in the Arab world and now chairs Jabbar Internet Group. In addition, matches are coming from the likes of 500 Startups co-founder Dave McClure, Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, Foundry Group and TechStars managing director Brad Feld and Crowdpac co-founder Gisel Kordestani. Just yesterday, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and “Lean Startup” author Eric Ries joined the campaign match.
This campaign was launched to buy a generator and fuel to extend the co-working hub’s hours in response to Gaza’s most severe energy shortage to date. In addition, they are raising funds to launch Gaza’s first coding academy.
Ghandour built Aramex, the largest tech-powered logistics company in the Arab world and perhaps the first true “unicorn” before the term was used. As a go-to investor in the Arab world, he has seen everything. “This is what we do at the Wamda Group,” Ghandour explains. “We support entrepreneurs and we help nurture the ecosystem in the region. Gaza Sky Geeks is where techies come to get their dose of hope in achieving part of their ambitions under a blockade system that punishes everyone. This is about Gazan Geeks becoming entrepreneurs and building businesses like everyone else around the world. It is ambitious, talented youth exploring, venturing and succeeding.”
McClure, who now operates funds in nearly every core emerging market, told me, “Gazans are smart people working on ideas for companies, and to some extent they have even more hustle than I’ve seen elsewhere, because they’re working in such a tough environment. They may actually be some of the best entrepreneurs in the world.”
One of the greatest and least understood stories of our times is not only that a new generation — everywhere — is solving problems themselves and not waiting for anyone to give permission, but has for the first time the tools in their pockets to do so at scale and affordably.
And nothing stands in their way. Said himself is living proof. His home was destroyed during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. Israeli shelling destroyed his whole neighborhood, including the U.N. building across the street from his home, where his father had previously worked. Said was able to evacuate with his laptop and returned to Gaza Sky Geeks, living in a friend’s house and back to work in a matter of days.
This story in Gaza is hopeful in and of itself, but a lens for prosperity and paths to futures everywhere. What I have seen has convinced me to be an adviser to them and their entrepreneurs and support their campaigns. They are deeply worthy.
The original article is published at the following link
*Christopher M. Schroeder is a U.S.-based venture investor, tech entrepreneur and the author of “Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East.” Reach him @cmschroed.
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Switzerland to host Arab-DAC Dialogue 2017
15 Jan 2017According to the web site of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affaires, OECD’s Development Assistance Committee invited Switzerland to host the Arab-DAC Dialogue on development in 2017 in recognition of the Swiss Agency for Development’s engagement with Arab donors.
Arabianbusiness
The governments from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are likely to lead the debt issuance market in 2017, favouring conventional bonds over sukuk (Islamic bonds), it has been reported.
In 2016, governments scrambled to cover budget deficits due to low oil prices, turning to conventional debt - a shift from the traditional pattern in which sukuk and conventional bonds had roughly equal shares of the region's international bond issuance.
In October last year, Saudi Arabia raised $17.5 billion through the conventional bonds, overtaking Qatar’s $9bn sovereign bonds issued in May.
Saudi Arabia has already given hints on a new bond issuance this year, while Bahrain and Kuwait expected to hit the market as well.
Junaid Ansari, Assistant Vice President, Kamco reportedly said the prospects for region’s bond issuances in 2017 appeared bright based on further funding requirement in the region by sovereigns and corporates.
A recent report by Moody's put Gulf governments rising $1.1bn, or 5 percent of their total debt issuance through sukuk in the first six months of 2016.
Standard & Poor’s estimated GCC corporate and project-related sukuk issuance totaled $2.5bn in the first eight months 2016, up marginally from $2.3bn a year ago.
GCC states said to drive debt issuance market in 2017 2017, Arabian Business.
www.arabianbusiness.com
في مقال نشر في مجلة "ميجرو ماغازين" "Migros Magazine "، وهي تصدر عن اكبر سلسلة محلات لتوزيع الأغذية في سويسرا، قال المار موك، وهو احد المؤسسين لمجموعة سواتش ومؤسس وكالة الابتكارات "كريهوليك" "Creaholic" في مدينة بيين، وهو يعطي إجابات حول البيئة الاقتصادية في سويسرا خاصة لماذا ان سويسرا تشكل أرضا خصبة للإبداع ولكن ليس للشركات الناشئة (start-up)، وهو يقدم توقعا متشائما لقطاع الساعات إذا ما فشلت هذه الصناعة في مواكبة التطورات الأخيرة المتسارعة التي تخطوها صناعة الساعات نحو الساعة الذكية المتصلة بالإنترنت.
في سويسرا ليس لدينا نفط ولكن لدينا أفكار. وفقا لمؤشر المنظمة العالمية للملكية الفكرية، نحن أبطال العالم في الابتكار للعام السادس على التوالي! ما الذي نريد أكثر من ذلك؟
حسنا، يجب الحذر بخصوص هذه المؤشرات، لان اغلب الاختراعات السويسرية تنصب في العلوم الحياتية والأدوية وهي تحوز على نصيب الاسد. ولكن لا يزال اللغز قائما بالفعل وهو كيف أن هذا البلد الصغير الذي لا تتوفر فيه الموارد وصل الى القمة من حيث البيئة الخاصة بالابتكار؟ في الواقع، هناك الكثير من الجنود المجهولين الذين ساهموا في هذه التطور بدءا من الشركات الصغيرة التي تقدم خدمات فريدة من نوعها والتي نجدها في سويسرا دون غيرها.
لماذا؟
لأنه لا يمكن أن نكون مبتكرين للغاية في عالم مضطرب وغير مستقر. للانفتاح والإبداع هناك حاجة حيوية لبناء الثقة في الجيران والمواطنين.
حققت سويسرا نجاحا يعزى الفضل فيه الى تاريخها والى الهيكل السياسي والاجتماعي، لتكون بذلك رائدة في البطؤ والانفتاح على الإبداع في نفس الوقت.
المشكلة هي أن الكثير من هذه الابتكارات لا ترى النور حيث انها لا تتجاوز مرحلة معينة – كما اشرت اليه في كتابك* – لا تتعدى مرحلة اليرقة أو الشرنقة.
وفقا لدراسات مختلفة، في معظم المؤسسات الصناعية، هناك فكرة واحدة من اصل خمسين تعرف النجاح. ومن الطبيعي على سبيل المثال أن يكون هناك تلقيح أكثر من الولادات. ولكن تتميز سويسرا بأن متوسط تكوين الشركات والمنتجات أعلى من جيرانها.
ولكن اللافت للانتباه هو انه ليس لدينا المدراء الأكثر جرأة والمغامرة في العالم.
يتوفر لدى الكائنات الحية غريزتين للبقاء: واحدة فورية كالحاجة للغذاء والطعام والصيد والحماية والتجارة وتحقيق الربح، وارضاء العملاء...الخ. وأخرى للمدى البعيد تتعلق بالحفاظ على النوع من خلال إنجاب الأطفال ونعني بهذا الابتكار. المشكلة التي يواجهها المدراء الحاليون هو انه يتم الدفع بهم نحو تغليب غريزة البقاء الفورية: أي ضرورة أن يكون الغد استمرارا لليوم، وهو أمر ضروري بالطبع. ولكن إذا اقتصرنا على هذا الهدف على المدى الطويل سنموت بالتأكيد...
ما الذي تقترحه انت باعتبارك احد رواد الابتكار؟
نحن نعتقد أننا نعيش في عالم أبوي ولكن في الحقيقة فان الشركات تعمل بنظام أمومي. فهي تتصرف كالأمهات التي لا تود إنجاب طفل كل يوم. على عكس المبدعين - الآباء - الذين يحبون أنجاب الاطفال باستمرار. وهذا هو السبب وراء عدم التوافق بين أرباب العمل والمبدعين. وفي الواقع، يتوجب تقديم تضحيات لانجاب الأطفال. ويتوجب على الأم أن تقبل فقدان مؤقت للرشاقة والمرونة والكفاءة التي ينطوي عليها الحمل. فليس من السهل أن تكون بطلا للقفز بالزانة في حين أنها حامل في شهرها الثامن.
وبالتالي، للحفاظ على فرصها لكي تبقى في صدارة العالم، تلجأ بعض الشركات لتبني شركة ناشئة؟
ان الشركات الناشئة هي كالأطفال الذين يولدون في المختبر، خارج الرحم. الهدف الرئيسي هو أن يتم تبنيها. إنه نموذج رائع اخترع من قبل الأمريكيين، ولكن لا يغوي سويسرا الا قليلا. ولكن لماذا؟ لأن هناك عدم تبني لهذه الفكرة في السوق السويسري. في الولايات المتحدة، يوجد اثنين أو ثلاثة من الأسواق التي تتبنى شركات: التكنولوجيات الجديدة وعلوم الحياة والامور الطبية. نفس الشيء يقال بالنسبة لأوروبا. في المقابل، فان المزيد من الشركات التقليدية مثل شركات السيارات والبناء وصناعة الساعات الميكانيكية لا تتبنى شركات ناشئة بسهولة.
إذن، هل يوجد النموذج السويسري بالفعل؟
نعم، انه نموذج الطائر، كآلة الحرب، يمتلك القدرة على التقاط الحشرات اثناء الطيران، ولكنه يعلم أنه ليس من الجيد أن يطير برفقة بيوضه. انه الطائر الذي يبحث عن عش في مكان مستقر، سواءا في منزله أو في الخارج باستخدام حاضنة الابتكار وتعتبر وكالة الابتكارات "كريهوليك" "Creaholic" احدى الأمثلة على ذلك. في الواقع، انه نموذج يفصل تماما بين نشاط الصيد وإنجاب الأطفال، أي انه يسير جنبا الى جنب في الانتاج للحاضر مع العمل على ابتكار افكار لمشروعات للمستقبل.
ولكن ذكرت في كتابك ايضا نموذج الضفدع ...
الضفادع لديها مشكلة وهي انها تشكل طعاما للفرنسيين والصينيين والثعابين وحتى الطيور والثعالب... ومن هنا لكي تبقى على قيد الحياة فهي تضع الف بيضة على أمل أن ينجو اثنان أو ثلاثة منها. هذا هو النموذج المستخدم لإطلاق تطبيقات الإنترنت. في الصناعة كما هو الحال في الطبيعة يوجد هناك أشكال مختلفة للحياة. هذا لا يعني أن نموذج ما هو بطبيعته أفضل من غيره. ولكن من خلال التجربة اعرف أن سويسرا توفر بيئة لبناء الاعشاش.
هل لديك أمثلة تعشيش ناجحة؟
نعم، نسبرسو (Nespresso) تمثل فكرة ولدت في العش. وهي نجمت عن ارادة من قبل إدارة نستله التي اوجدت الفكرة ووفرت لها الدعم أمام العواصف والامواج المتلاطمة، بما في ذلك المعارضة الداخلية التي ارادت قتلها في مهدها. اذ كان من الواضح أن نسكافيه لم ترد أبدا لفكرة نسبرسو ان ترى النور. كذلك الامر كان بالنسبة لساعة "سووتش" (Swatch) التي لم تكن سوى ثمرة فكرة ابداعية فرخت في عش.
المهم في الابتكار هو أنه في نهاية المطاف هناك عدد أفكار أقل من أرباب العمل الذين هم على استعداد لتصور أن غدا سيكون مختلفا عن الأمس
انطلق ايرنست ثومكي " Ernst Thomke" في مغامرة لإنشاء ساعة "سواتش" دون خطة عمل أو بحوث السوق. في الواقع، كما يمكن ان يفهم من قراءة كتابك، فان قصة النجاح هذه ليست سوى جزء من فكرة ضبابية وتصميم مبهم...
يمكن تشبيه ايرنست ثومكي بستيف جوبز (Steve Jobs): ذكاء وسرعة ومثابرة. كان لديه رؤية واضحة... لكن المخيب للآمال أن ما هو شائع اليوم من يعتبر اليوم والد سواتش (اي نيكولا حايك)، لأنه لم يفعل شيئا لتطوير الفكرة الأولية. فالساعة التي بحوزتي اليوم (أي كان يرتدي في معصمه ساعة سواتش سوداء) لها نفس المكونات بالضبط التي كانت منذ ست وثلاثين عاما، فهي لم تتغير منذ ذلك الحين. إنه لأمر مدهش! أن مثل هذا النجاح يمكن أن يخفي الفشل الذريع. وأعتقد أن أزمة الساعات التي سوف نعيشها الآن تنبع من غياب هذا التطور.
يجب العلم انه كان يتوجب علينا أن نحتفظ بالأهداف الأصلية لدينا، رؤيتنا للصناعة، وعدم الاعتماد فقط على الرؤية المالية والصناعة التحويلية. وأخيرا، فإننا تركنا الآخرين يقومون بحيازة السوق.
هل تعني بذلك الساعات المتصلة بالإنترنت؟
العالم يتغير. الساعة هي مجرد أداة كالبندول تخبرنا كيف تسير الحياة وتتيح لنا إدارة جدول أعمالنا وفقا لجدول زمني محدد. فمن الآن فصاعدا، تحولنا الى عصر الاتصالات. سوف يمكننا ان نكون حيث نريد في أي وقت نريد. وهذا ممكن فقط إذا كنا متصلين، إنها مسألة بديهية.
على الرغم من ذلك سيبقى الطلب على الساعات الفاخرة، ولكنها ستمثل جزءا صغيرا من سوق الساعات.
أعتقد أنه خلال مدة خمس سنوات فان نصف الساعات سيكون متصلا بالإنترنت. هذه المنتجات سوف تلتهم سوق الساعات متوسطة النوعية، التي تمثل على الأقل 20 مليون قطعة، أي ما يعادل ثلثي انتاجنا الحالي.
عند الاستماع لحديثك ينتابنا شعور بأن قطاع الساعات يكرر نفس الخطأ الذي ارتكب في ثمانينيات القرن الماضي، عندما عانت صناعة ساعات الكوارتز من تراجع حاد في السوق.
نفس الخطأ بل أسوأ من ذلك! لان صانعي الساعات كانوا أفضل استعدادا للثورة الصناعية في ذلك الوقت مما هو عليه الحال اليوم. في ذلك الوقت، كان الصناعيون هم الذين يديرون صناعة الساعات وليس مدراء التسويق والمبيعات ورواة القصص (كما هو الحال الان)...
ولكن بكل الاحوال أرباب صناعة الساعات يتحركون على أي حال مع بعض التأخر. فهل فات الأوان؟
لم يفت الاوان بعد، لكنني لا أشعر أن هناك قناعة وهذا هو الأسوأ. لنأخذ مثلا جان كلود بيفر (مدير قسم الساعات لمجموعة (LVMH))، فقد قام بمبادرة مهزوزة مع خطوة إلى الوراء، حيث عرض ساعة متصلة بالإنترنت لكنه قال انه يمكن إضافة الحركة الميكانيكية خلال عامين في حال الضرورة... وهو ما يظهر عدم اقتناعه بما يقول. فالمشكلة لا تكمن في المعرفة أو الدراية، بل في الإرادة.
ولكن لعل الأزمة كما عرضتها سوف تدفعهم لرد الفعل، أليس كذلك؟
إذا لم يكن هناك طلاق لربما لا تجلب الرجال الزهور الى المنزل. ولكن هل علينا أن ننتظر رسالة من المحامي للقيام بهذه اللفتة، فهل ينبغي علينا أن ننتظر الازمة من اجل الابتكار، هل ينبغي أن تقع الكارثة لكي نتحرك؟.
*في الواقع اجريت المقابلة مع المؤلف (Elmar Mock) من قبل المجلة على خلفية كتابه بعنوان (La fabrique de l’innovation)
ترجمة من الفرنسية: نقلا عن مجلة "ميجرو ماغازين" "Migros Magazine "«Doit-on attendre d’être en crise pour innover?»، www.migrosmagazine.ch
Midde East Business
The conflict in Syria has inspired a new wave of innovative youths to tap into unexplored fields, producing new ideas and embracing new business models- 17.6 percent of Syrian youth tried to work on startup ideas on 2014; in 2015, the figure climbed to 31.2 percent.
This is one of many findings from a report I published today to highlight the experiences and needs of Syrian entrepreneurs in the country during the conflict to sum up the results of five years of work to build an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem in Syria.
The report draws on data from a study examining the views and experiences over a period of twelve months of research, during which 268 interviews were conducted with Syrians entrepreneurs. The study also included an open discussion and series of interviews with entrepreneurs experts as well as insights from local startups.
This report identifies 10 main challenges facing entrepreneurs who have launched or are planning to launch their startups inside the country, outlines research findings on the overall situation of entrepreneurship sector in Syria.
By identifying its characteristics and problems, it offers a host of possible solutions that could be considered in trying to overcome the obstacles posed by this lingering conflict as well as providing a deeper look at the motives behind seeing more female entrepreneurs join the market.
Entrepreneurship in Conflict Zones 2017, Middle East News.
middleeast-business.com
War is costly. Not only in lives lost, towns destroyed, nations split or whole continents in turmoil, but in the massive amounts spent on weaponry and mercenaries/fighters.
In the Middle East, the cost is all too apparent. Many once great cities stand in ruins, historic monuments and mosques razed to the ground. But who profits from war? And why isn’t such an enormous amount of money invested in peacemaking initiatives?
Middle East Magazine
The latest Global Peace Index report, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), found that 2015 was a bad year for international peace and security, recording a further deterioration in global peace based on historic trends.
Globally, 2015 witnessed the highest number of global battle deaths for 25 years, persistently high levels of terrorism, and the highest number of refugees and displaced people since World War II.
This violence had a huge cost. The report finds that for 2015 alone, the economic impact of violence to the global economy was $13.6 trillion in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). This is equivalent to $5 per day for every person on the planet, or 11 times the size of global foreign direct investment (FDI).
The toll of violence is typically counted in terms of its human and emotional cost, but the financial damage to the economy is yet another additional factor to consider. When counting the economic impact one must look at the costs of preventing and containing violence, as well as measuring its consequences. This is important because spending on containing violence, while perhaps necessary, is fundamentally economically unproductive.
How do you quantify the costs of war?
IEP’s method is a comprehensive accounting exercise to “add up” those direct and indirect expenditures related to creating and containing violence plus its consequential costs. These include not just military spending but domestic expenditures on security and police plus the losses from armed conflict, homicides, violent crime and sexual assault.
The $13.6 trillion of expenditures and losses represent 13.3% of world GDP. To break this figure down, it’s the equivalent of $1,876 for every person on the planet. The numbers refer to the current expenditures and their estimated associated effects in 2015, and are represented in PPP international dollars.
These numbers are notable for two reasons.
Firstly, over 70% of the economic impact of violence accrues from what is mostly government spending on the military and internal security. This shows that significant amounts of government expenditure are tied up to this end. In a perfectly peaceful world, these huge resources could be directed elsewhere.
Secondly, the remaining amount is consequential losses from violence and conflict and these, too, are enormous. They significantly outweigh the international community’s spending on building peace.
A quick examination of the numbers reveals that the world continues to spend vastly disproportionate resources on creating and containing violence compared to what it spends on peace. In 2015 alone, UN peacekeeping expenditures of $8.27 billion totalled only 1.1% of the estimated $742 billion of economic losses from armed conflict.
When looking at peace-building – the activities that aim to create peace in the long term – those totaled $6.8 billion or only 0.9% the economic losses from conflict. Spending on peace-building and peace-keeping is minuscule when compared to the economic losses caused by conflict, representing just 2% in 2015.
But fundamental to future improvements in peace is a greater investment in peace-building and peace-keeping. Peace-keeping operations are measures aimed at responding to a conflict, whereas peace-building expenditures are aimed at developing and maintaining the capacities for resilience to conflict.
Peace-building expenditure aims to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into violent conflict by strengthening national capacities and institutions for conflict management and laying the foundations of sustainable peace and development.
These numbers suggest a serious under-investment in the activities that build peace and demonstrate that the international community is spending too much on conflict and too little on peace. Given the fact that the cost of violence is so significant, the economic argument for more spending on peace is indeed powerful.
The rise of peace inequality
Furthermore, a new phenomenon is emerging as some countries grow more peaceful while overall levels of violence increase: peace inequality. This drives a broader dynamic of greater economic inequalities between nations; as the least peaceful countries spiral into greater violence and conflict, they are also further set back economically.
Weapons of war – Middle East imports increasing
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Asia and the Middle East are leading a rise in arms imports, whilst the USA and Russia remain the largest global arms exporters.
Arms imports by states in the Middle East rose by 61% between 2006–10 and
2011–15.
Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, says; ‘Despite low oil prices, large deliveries of arms to the Middle East are scheduled to continue as part of contracts signed in the past five years.’ The civil wars raging in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, are all contributing to the proliferation of arms on the streets of the Middle East.
War costs us $13.6 trillion globally. So why spend so little on peace? 2017, Middle East News.
middleeast-business.com
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According to the data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), world military expenditure in 2000, was estimated to be around $1132 billion, whilst in 2014, this estimation increased to about $1746 billion. For the most part, these figures are due to the large military budgets of the Americas and Europe.
Source: Data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
* Arab countries include: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Yemen.
Similarly, military expenditure data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) show that military costs in the Arab world increased from about $62 billion in 1990 to about $134 billion in 2015. This comparative difference is significant when put into Iran or Switzerland’s context, but in terms of military expenditure for the USA, this cost expansion is minimal. Evidently, the USA raised its military finances from about $555 billion in 1990 to around $596 billion in 2015. An excessive growth, matched by no other.
Source: Calculations depending on data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
* Arab countries include: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Yemen.
Source: Data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
* Arab countries include: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Yemen.
The following table shows data on military expenditure in the Arab world compared to the other main actors in constant (2014) US$ million and as percentage of gross domestic product for the period 1988-2015.
1. Data for 2008, 2. data for 2006, 3. data for 2000, 4. data for 2010.
Source: Data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
* Arab countries include: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Yemen.
Cost of conflict for the Middle East
A report by Strategic Foresight Group has calculated the conflict opportunity cost for the Middle East from 1991-2010 at a whopping $12 trillion. Had there been peace in the region, Lebanon’s share during this period would be almost $100 billion (according to 2006 prices). In other words had there been peace and cooperation since 1991, every Lebanese citizen would be earning over $11,000 instead of the $5,600 in 2010.
Vaccine Institute
Investment Description
Saudi Arabia has a high risk of exposure to infections due to 6+ million annual visitors for Hajj and Umrah, yet it does not currently boast any research and development or large scale manufacturing capability for human vaccines.
Concrete sleepers & slab track
Investment Description
The planned metro projects in Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and Dammam, as well as the Saudi-Bahrain railway, the Jeddah commuter rail, the Saudi Landbridge, and the GCC railway will create an estimated USD 3.7 billion opportunity for concrete sleepers and slab track.
Rail & metro electrification systems
Investment Description
Saudi Arabia’s planned metro, light rail, mixed use and high-speed rail projects will require an estimated USD 1.8 billion investment into electrification.
