''The Future is not seen in the rearview mirror''
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Global Labor Market Conference
I visited the Kingdom after three decades in order to attend the Global Labor Market Conference, which was held at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center (KAICC), which is a grand and appropriate venue for convening the World's most valuable capital, that being human capital. The Venue could pass muster in any capital anywhere in the World and is on such a large scale you get ferried around in fancy golf carts.
My overarching Takeaways from my visit, is that Kingdom is at a Gladwellian Tipping Point moment. I have never witnessed such a thing at a country level. There has been a generational change at the leadership level, the debate about women being allowed to drive is passé and has been overtaken by events and to quote the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
''I support the People of Saudi Arabia, half the people are women and therefore I support women''
Of course, The Crown Prince is the Gladwellian figure exercising the Power of Pull [evidenced by the Roster of Guests at this conference and if you are geo politically inclined then just look at the recent visit by the Russian President Vladimir Putin whose entourage included every member of his Government] but the sense of empowerment I found in his citizens was remarkable and noteworthy. This is a young population [seventy percent below the age of 30] who are being unleashed and who believe ''Impossible is nothing'' There is a new openness about the Kingdom and it has Mojo and momentum.
KSA is a magnet for the best minds on the Planet said H.E. Eng. Ahmad Bin Sulaiman AlRajhi and he was not exaggerating.
HE Minister of Economy and Planning @falibrahim said “The Kingdom is attracting the best innovators and problem solvers from around the world” to “define what the future looks like” at #GLMC2023 and he was not exaggerating either.
Ashar Nizam ''Riyadh is the new centre of the entrepreneurial World''
Without visiting the Kingdom, I would have had little idea.
The Conference that I attended was interesting because it was addressing the human capital issue which is precisely the issue. The Conference covered
The Arrival of Artificial. Intelligence [which could replace upto 300million jobs worldwide] 'Dr. Andy Xie who is certainly an iconoclast however struck a cautionary note
'ChatGPT is like a dog....Neural Networks have been around for a hundred years A.I is nothing new...its just that people are burning a ton of money..'' Dr. Andy Xie
''If you have money I wouldn't put it into A.I. You will lose money, its just like every other Bubble'' Dr. Andy Xie
I learnt the Gig Economy witnessed year on Year of growth of 530% in Japan.
The issue of ageing societies [By 2050 40% of populations in East Asia and much of Western Europe will be over 65] ''Nigeria in the next 20 years will have a bigger population than the entire European Union'' said the former Leader of Italy Matteo Renzi
Globally in 2022, approximately USD$800Billion was sent by people living abroad to their home countries in the form of remittances Dr. Caglar Ozden advised ''Origin countries need to train their people for domestic and international markets so they can adapt everywhere''
Matteo Renzi @matteorenzi made some very bold pronouncements ''There will not be a division between rich and poor countries in the future''
''We cannot continue with the old paradigm, rich countries going to poorer countries using their human resource....''
I learnt that increasing prosperity is ultimately a productivity story which is the story of the Tiger economies. South Korea was offered as a preeminent example of how to do it? Samsung started as a Fertiliser Company.
''You can only empower the opportunities....'' said H.E. Eng. Abdullah Alswaha
H.E. Eng. Abdullah Alswaha Minister of Communications and Information Technology Saudi Arabia characterised the moment as ''A Tipping and a turning point'' and I for one will not argue with him.
I operate in the markets where I am always looking for the Break Out and exponential Trade. At a National level, this is precisely what I witnessed during my visit
My Visit was facilitated by Ammar Bakkar CEO of the Approach Company and I am grateful to Anas Alhajji Esquire for making the connection
@Global_LMC #GLMC2023 #FutureOfWork
13-14 December 2023 GLOBAL LABOR MARKET CONFERENCE KAICC, Riyadh, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia
https://www.globallabormarketconference.com
Aly-Khan Satchu