Tuesday, October 29, 2013

A former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia defines democracy in Saudi Arabia

"The Kingdom is pushing ahead to advance business. Private sector growth is surging and U.S. trade reflects this. As Prince Abdulaziz said in his opening remarks U.S. trade to the Kingdom has doubled. In fact bilateral trade overall has doubled in the last four years. It’s fair to say that Saudi Arabia is open to American ventures but they will have to be competitive and our companies have to offer a value proposition that solves the key challenges within the Kingdom, mainly job creation, training and education, and technology transfer.
A central thesis of mine is that good business is good diplomacy. I look around this room and I see many faces that have made a difference either as job creators in the Kingdom or as corporate social responsibility leaders. American business does have a competitive advantage when you bring the U.S. value proposition to meet Saudi aspirations in the sale of your product or service." (thanks Amer)