ARAB ECONOMIC UNITY - FIKR 8 CONFERENCE OPENS IN KUWAIT

• Tuesday, 08 December 2009

Kuwait City, Kuwait Wednesday 9th December: Leading cultural, economic, humanitarian and political thinkers come together today for the only truly cross-sector and cross-cultural gathering in the Arab World – FIKR 8. Leading world figures from Europe and Asia are also attending the two-day event.

The programme’s theme for 2009 is “Integrating Arab Economies: Partnering For Prosperity”, with a focus on the region’s economy and the movement towards pan-Arab economic partnership and integration. With the Dubai debt crisis still fresh in people’s minds, what are the region’s prospects ‘beyond the barrel’? As the idea of corporate responsibility gains in strength across the West’s boardrooms can Islamic Finance serve as a model for a better way of doing business? Is an ‘Arab EU’ a realistic prospect?

Conference topics will also include Energy Leadership and how the region can step up its role in alternative energy; Food Security and Global Agriculture; Trade Liberalisation; Monetary Union and Youth Job Creation.

Speakers include: Arif Naqvi CEO Abraaj Capital, Naguib Sawiris Chairman and CEO Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, Khalid Abduallah Janahi Chairman Ithmaar Bank, Ben Simpfendorfer Chief China Economist Royal Bank of Scotland, Faisal A Al Mutawa MD Bayan Investments, Abdulrahman Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Secretary General Gulf Cooperation Council and Prince Bandar Bin Khalid Al Faisal, Co-Founder of the Arab Thought Foundation.

This year’s conference will also focus on the hopes and prospects for the Middle East’s young people. With 50 million extra jobs needing to be created within the next 10 years, the conference addresses the challenges created by the Arab Youth bubble and what the impact of a large youth demographic will have on the region – its economy, politics and society. Award winning social entrepreneurs and youth leaders such as Soraya Salti, Sooud Al Qassemi and Samar Samir Mezghani come together for a televised debate on Al-Arabiya.

2009 Arab Creativity Awards
Celebrating the Best in Arab Science, Technology, Economics, Society, Literature, Culture & the Media

The conference will host a gala dinner to honour the winners of the 2009 Arab Creativity Awards. This year’s winners include Abdel Moneim Al’Sawi for his work with community arts project Culturewheel.com (Artistic Creativity Award); novelist Zohra Mansouri (Literary Creativity Award); the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (Scientific Creativity Award); Professor Elias Zerhouni ( Technical Creativity Award); Salama Ahmed Salama (Media Creativity Award); the village of Bil’in in the occupied Palestinian territories (Social Creativity Award); and the Bank of Lebanon and the Lebanese Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh (shared, Economic Creativity Award). Each winner receives US$50,000 in prize money.

FIKR 8 (‘thought’ or ‘idea’ in the Arabic language)
FIKR’s guiding mission is to harness the most current thinking on the future of the Arab economy and culture through an international programme of events and initiatives. The annual FIKR conference has emerged as the leading forum for debate on Arab cultural and economic issues, forging practical solutions for the region to benefit future generations.

Arab Thought Foundation
The Arab Thought Foundation is an international, independent and non-governmental organisation founded in 2001 with a guiding mission to help advance the economic, social and cultural development of the Arab region and to promote better understanding between the Arab and Western World.

For further information about the conference or to interview any of the speakers, please contact

Kuwait City : Jackline Rizq, Way Communications T: +965 257 10 600 E: jackline@way-com.com
London: Carrie Bishop, FBC Media T: +44 (0)207 038 0971 E: cbishop@fbcmedia.com

Press Releases, Footage, Stills can be found on|http://extranet.fbcmedia.com/fikr

Find FIKR
Want to learn more about FIKR or the Arab Creativity Awards?
Arabic|http://www.fikrconferences.org/index.php?lang=ar
English|www.fikrconferences.org

Al-Arabiya Debate
See the FIKR debate on Al-Arabiya
10th December 2009
16:40-18:40 AST | 13:40-15:40 GMT

This press release was distributed via SourceWire, a service from Daryl Willcox Publishing, on behalf of FBC Media (London). For more information visit http://www.dwpub.com/pressreleasewires