Economic and institutional reforms in the Arab Gulf countries

Middle East Journal

Volumn 65, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 85-102

  Hvidt, Martin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK   (Denmark)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; ECONOMIC PLANNING; ECONOMIC REFORM; INSTITUTIONAL REFORM;

ARABIAN SEA; DUBAI [UNITED ARAB EMIRATES]; INDIAN OCEAN; PERSIAN GULF; UNITED ARAB EMIRATES;

EID: 79751503649     PISSN: 00263141     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3751/65.1.15     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. This article delimits itself to the study of the six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
2. International Monetary Fund (IMF), Regional Economic Outlook: Middle East and Central Asia (Washington, DC: IMF, 2009), p. 5.
3. See, for example, Meena Janardhan, "Diversification Follows the 'Copycat' Route," Interpress Service News Agency, November 28, 2007.
4. Seth Sherwood, "Is Qatar the Next Dubai?," The New York Times, June 4, 2006.
5. "Nabil Ali Al Yousuf: Catalyst of Change," TRENDS Magazine (March 2008), p. 160. Al Yousuf points out that countries also imitate the administrative reforms initiated by Dubai.
6. See, for example, Goverment of Bahrain, Our Vision. The Economic Vision 2030 for Bahrain (Manama: Bahrain Economic Development Board, 2008).
7. Government of UAE, UAE Vision 2021: United in Ambition and Determination (Abu Dhabi: Government of United Arab Emirates, 2010).
8. General Secretariat for Development Planning (GSDP), Qatar National Vision 2030, July 2008 ed. (Doha: General Secretariat For Development Planning, 2008).
9. Ministry of Information, The Seventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) (Muscat: Government of Oman, 2006).
10. Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), Brief Report on the Ninth Development Plan (2010-2014) (Riyadh: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Economy and Planning, 2010).
11. State of Kuwait, Five-Year Development Plan of the State of Kuwait 2009/2010-2013/2014. A Draft General Framework (Kuwait City: The General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, 2009).
12. The Institute of International Finance (IIF), Tracking GCC Petrodollars: How and Where They Are Being Invested around the World, Regional Briefing Gulf Cooperation Council (Washington, DC: The Institute of International Finance, Inc., 2007), p. 1.
13. IIF, Tracking GCC Petrodollars, p. 2.
14. IIF, Record Oil Prices Fuel Major Expansion of Gulf Economies and Large Gains in Surplus Funds - Foreign Assets Reach $1.8 Trillion, January 16, 2008 (Washington, DC: Institute of International Finance, Inc., 2008).
15. IIF, Summary Appraisal: Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, November 6, 2008 (Washington, DC: Institute of International Finance, Inc., 2008), p. 13. The IMF expresses the same understanding of the situation in IMF Sees Spending by Middle Eastern Oil Exporters Softening Global Financial Crisis Impact, Press Release No. 09/28, February, 2009 (Washington, DC: IMF, 2009).
16. IIF, Summary Appraisal: Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, p. 13.
17. IMF, Regional Economic Outlook: Middle East and Central Asia (Oct 2010), World Economic and Financial Surveys (Washington, DC: IMF, 2010), p. 1. The average oil price in 2008 was $99 per barrel according to the IIF, Update: Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, December 4, 2008 (Institute of International Finance, Inc., 2008), p. 2.
18. IMF, Regional Economic Outlook: Middle East and Central Asia (Oct 2010), p. 1.
19. Adal Mirza, "Construction Prices Offer Window of Opportunity in Oil and Gas Sector," Middle East Economic Digest (MEED), No. 44, October 30-November 5 (2009).
20. Michael P. Todaro and Stephen C. Smith, Economic Development, 10th ed. (Harlow, England: Pearson/Addison Wesly, 2009), p. 675.
21. Afshin Molavi, "The CEO Sheik," Newsweek, August 6, 2007, p. 18.
22. Martin Hvidt, "Public-Private Ties and Their Contribution to Development," p. 562.
23. Martin Hvidt, "The Dubai Model."
24. IIF, Tracking GCC Petrodollars.
25. The rentier state model will be defined later in the discussion of allocation and production states. The standard references to this model are the two contributions by Giacomo Luciani and Hazem Beblawi in the book Giacomo Luciani, ed., The Arab State (London: Routledge, 1990).
26. Matthew Martin, "Dubai Total Debt Hits $28.8bn.," MEED, No. 40, October 1-7, 2010.
27. See, for example, Eckart Woertz, Implication of Dubai's Debt Troubles, December 2009, GRC Reports (Dubai: Gulf Research Center, 2009), p. 1.
28. Giacomo Luciani, "Allocation vs. Production States: A Theoretical Framework," in Giacomo Luciani, ed., The Arab State (London: Routledge, 1990).
29. Hazem Beblawi, "The Rentier State in the Arab World," in Giacomo Luciani, ed., The Arab State (London: Routledge, 1990), p. 87.
30. Luciani finds the Middle Eastern oil-producing states to be typical examples of allocation states. Luciani, " Allocation vs. Production States," p. 72.
31. Luciani, " Allocation vs. Production States," pp. 71, 75. For a detailed discussion of whether Dubai is a production or allocation state see Hvidt, "Public-Private Ties," p. 562.
32. Beblawi, "The Rentier State," p. 86.
33. Atif A. Kubursi, "Prospects for Regional Economic Integration after Oslo," in Michael C. Hudson, ed., Middle East Dilemma: The Politics and Economics of Arab Integration (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999), p. 311.
34. Toby Dodge and Richard Higgott, "Globalization and Its Discontents: The Theory and Practice of Change in the Middle East," in Toby Dodge and Richard Higgott, eds., Globalization and the Middle East: Islam, Economy, Society and Politics (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2002), p. 28.
35. Alan Richards and John Waterbury, A Political Economy of the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2008), p. 211.
36. Europa Publications, The Middle East and North Africa Handbook 2008, p. 689.
37. As a result of the financial crises asset prices have fallen sharply (by approximately 40%) which has decreased the value of the Sovereign Wealth Funds. Their relative size and influence in the global market will, however, remain large. IMF, Regional Economic Outlook: Middle East and Central Asia, p. 11.
38. Since reforms often are meet with significant criticism from the segment in society who stand to lose by the implementation of reforms, reforms can only be seen through if there exists a clear and important aim. Todaro and Smith, Economic Development, p. 535.
39. See http://www.doingbusiness.org.
40. Author's calculations based on data from Table 1.3 in World Bank, Doing Business 2010, p. 4.
41. World Bank, Doing Business 2010, p. 5.
42. World Bank, Doing Business in the Arab World: Comparing Regulation in 20 Economies (Washington, DC: IBRD/World Bank, 2008), pp. 44-46.
43. Tim Niblock and Monica Malik, The Political Economy of Saudi Arabia (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 173.
44. Steffen Hertog, Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010), Chapter 5.
45. The end-of-year bonuses of the executive staff at SAGIA were dependent upon achieving or surpassing targets set according to the rank of Saudi Arabia on the Doing Business index: Awwad Al- Awwad, IFC Smart Lessons: Eliminating Minimum Capital Requirement and Facilitating Business Start-up in Saudi Arabia (Washington, DC: International Finance Corporation/World Bank, 2007). Personal communication with Steffen Hertog, Cambridge, Canada, August 28, 2009.
46. Andrew Walter, Governing Finance: East Asia's Adoption of International Standards (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008), p. 5.
47. World Bank, Doing Business in the Arab World [2008], pp. 60-76.
48. The latest version of The Arab World Competitiveness Report was issued in 2007, World Economic Forum, The Arab World Competitiveness Report 2007 (Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum, 2007). The two previous reports are from 2003 and 2005.
49. World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 (Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum, 2008), p. 3.
50. For an in-depth explanation of these pillars, see World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, pp. 3-6.
51. World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, p. 30.
52. World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, p. 31.
53. World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, p. 32.
54. World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, p. 7.
55. World Economic Forum, The Arab World Competitiveness Report 2007, p. 16.
56. World Economic Forum, "MENA Region Still Suffers from Infrastructure Deficit" (Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2010), http://www.weforum.org/news/mena-region-still-suffers-infrastructure-deficit?fo=1.
57. Charles W. L. Hill, International Business. Competing in the Global Marketplace, 2nd ed. (Boston: Irwin/ McGraw-Hill, 1999), p. 176.
58. Martin, "Dubai Total Debt Hits $28.8bn."
59. Calculated by the author from FDI data from 'UNCTADstat' (see source of Figure 1) and population data from UN population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision, http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=2.
60. "Dubai Issues List of Freehold Locations," Gulf News, April 30, 2007.
61. See also Richard Nield, "The UAE's Economy: A Tale of Two Cities in 2010," MEED, Middle East Economic Review 2010 (2010).