Former Lebanese leader calls on wealthy states to help neighbours

Richer Arab countries should invest their money in the region

The former prime minister of Lebanon says wealthy Arab nations should invest more in neighbouring countries rather than send their money to the West. Speaking at a conference in Dubai yesterday, Fouad Siniora said one of the lessons from the financial crisis should be about the value of putting capital to work closer to home.

"There are definitely opportunities for those who have to help those who have not. I think it is in the best interests of everybody," he said. Mr Siniora, a member of parliament, served as Lebanon's prime minister from 2005 to last year. He said sovereign wealth funds and affluent investors shipped their money to the US and Europe because they perceived it was safe, only to see those investments go "bust" in the crisis. Those funds, including from the UAE, could have instead done more to help countries such as Syria, Jordan, Sudan and Iraq improve their infrastructure and grow their economies. He noted the "immense" need to improve agricultural production throughout the region but stressed that his arguments were based on financial principles and not mere solidarity among Arabs.

"Your well-being is affected by the well-being of your neighbour. It is a sheer business proposition," he said. Mr Siniora was the keynote speaker at a conference on the topic that posed the question: "Can the Middle East support more than one business hub?" He pointed to his hometown, Beirut, which is in the middle of an economic revival and said Lebanon "may be the only country in the world where the deficit has shrunk" in the past decade, falling from 23 per cent to 8 per cent of GDP, while per capita income doubled.

Still, Mr Siniora said he did not anticipate that Beirut would supplant Dubai as the primary regional business force. "I don't think we are going to end up having one centre in the region. There will be some sort of specialisation" among cities, he said. "Beirut does not claim to take the role of Dubai. They are complementary and they can really help one another." There were conflicting views among conference delegates about whether other cities would challenge Dubai in the coming years.

In a survey, the 120 or so people attending the conference were asked which city in the region they felt was most likely to be the regional business hub in five years. Seventy-two per cent said Dubai, while 16 per cent voted for Abu Dhabi and 4 per cent said Beirut. [e-mail]