JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia , Dec. 18, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) --
Panelists include CEO's from the world's largest oil companies
CEO's of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Chevron Texaco and Royal Dutch Shell will join the Director General of the WTO, the Prime Minister of Turkey, the President of Kazakhstan, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia and other world leaders yet to be announced at the 5th annual Jeddah Economic Forum, which will be held January 17-19 in Jeddah. Dr. Ray Irani, Chairman & CEO of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Peter Robertson, Vice Chairman of the Board of Chevron Texaco Corporation and Walter van der Vijver, Group M.D. of Royal Dutch / Shell Group of Companies will participate as panellists in a discussion on oil and global economic stability. Keynote speakers at the conference will include the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently retired Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Mahathir Mohammed, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev and WTO Director General Supahai Panitchpakdi. In the coming weeks the Jeddah Marketing Board will announce more high-level international participants in the 2004 Forum.
The annual Forum which was first organized in 1999 has become the region's strategic think tank focusing on local, regional, and international economic and social issues. "The Jeddah Economic Forum has set the benchmark for business gatherings across the Middle East and has been refined and augmented over the last four years," said Amr A. Dabbagh, Chairman of the Jeddah Marketing Board, which organizes the yearly event. "This year the Forum will be of unprecedented scale and will address many of the burning economic issues we face in these momentous times. The overall forum theme is `Achieving Accelerated Growth' a critical requirement in our increasingly integrated and interdependent world. The sessions over three days will address key issues relating to entrepreneurship, business growth and job creation in the context of globalisation and political and economic realignments in our region and across the world. It will also highlight the achievements of countries that have pursued strategies for rapid economic development."
This year's Jeddah Economic Forum will host three Finance Ministers: HE the Pakistani Minister of Finance, Mr. Shaukat Aziz; HE the Lebanese Minister of Finance, Mr. Fuad Saniora; and HE Swedish Minister for International Economic Affairs & Financial Markets Mr. Gunnar Lund. In addition, two globally distinguished economists will take part: Dr. Norbert Walter, Chief Economist, Deutsche Bank Group and Mr. Clark Winter, Global Chief Investment Strategist, Citigroup.
- Distinguished participants at previous Jeddah Economic Forums have included former U.S. Presidents George Bush and William Jefferson Clinton, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former French President Valery Giscard D'Estaing, former British Prime Minister John Major, the Crown Prince of Bahrain HH Sheikh Salman bin Hamad, Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Al-Ragheb, former Russian Prime Minister and President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Mr.Yevgeny Primakov, and high profile Saudi businessman HRH Waleed Bin Talal, among many others.
The chosen academic partner for the 2004 Jeddah Economic Forum is the London Business School (LBS), one of the world's leading graduate management schools. LBS Dean Laura Tyson, Professor Micheal Hay and Dean of Harvard Business School, Professor John Quelch.
According to Amr A. Dabbagh, the Jeddah Businesswomen's Committee, which is chaired by HRH Princess Adelah bint Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the daughter of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, is integrally involved in the Jeddah Economic Forum and contributed extensively in developing the program and the event logistics.