Things Changing Faster Since 9/11.

Yet it is important to note that the sense of urgency has become clear since the events of Sept. 11, 2001. More Arab leaders are beginning to recognise that if they do not change on their own, then change might be imposed from outside. Over the past two years, vital steps towards reforms have been taken in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Qatar and other Middle East and North African countries. Taken together, observers point out, they mark an extraordinary change for Arab governments - although it still remains to be seen whether the promised changes will materialise.

Nevertheless, there have been positive measures. In 2003 alone, key developments included (1) Saudi Arabia's announcement in May of its plan to appoint a national human rights commission and an announcement in September that it would hold local elections for the first time; (2) in Qatar, voters approved a new constitution in April that established the country's first elected parliament; (3) in Egypt, state security courts were abolished in June, with 2,000 political prisoners released on Oct. 6, and a slate of reform proposals adopted at the ruling party's conference in September; (4) Jordan's King Abdullah II advocated the dissolution of the Information Ministry and greater freedom of the press; and (5) Syria President Bashar Assad cited the need for economic and bureaucratic reforms as the rationale behind a cabinet reshuffle in September.

There is a strong emphasis on privatisation taking hold in the region, and this extends to both the oil and non-oil sector. In some ways, this will overlap as private industry begins to provide satellite services to the energy sector in oil-rich countries.

Concluding 7th Arab Energy Conference in May 2002 in Cairo, participants pledged to speed up economic liberalisation in order to attract much needed private investment in energy projects. Ministers and high ranking officials representing 15 of the 22 members of the Arab League pledged "to work toward more liberalisation to attract private investments", according to the final statement.

Arab countries hold 61% of the world's oil reserves, and 25 % of its gas reserves, the final conference statement said. But an expert at the conference also told the participants that Arab countries should no longer rely on oil and gas to produce wealth, and should engage in political, administrative and economic reforms to attract the private funding needed to diversify their sources of income. The Arab private sector is beginning to recognise that it has a responsibility as well.

At a meeting in Dubai in late October 2002 of the Arab Business Council, Mohammed Al Abbar, chairman of the UAE-based property developer EMAAR, said: "The private sector has a duty to assist governments to move in the right direction. Arab governments need a good partner and the private sector has not played its role". The Arab Business Council groups representatives of the top 100 Arab private sector companies, and was launched in June 2003 at the behest of the World Economic Forum during a meeting of government and corporate leaders in Jordan. It is modelled on the influential European Round Table of Industrialists.