Global Competitiveness Forum

H.E. Amr Al-Dabbagh
Governor & Chairman, SAGIA

His Excellency Mr. Amr Al-Dabbagh is the Governor and Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), with the rank of Minister. In the 3 years since he assumed the position in March 2004, SAGIA has seen the value of investment licenses grow to 19 times the total since it was created in 2000 (from US$4.5 billion to $US80 billion).

Al-Dabbagh has been lauded by government and private sector leaders for his visionary and highly ambitious leadership capacity, which has recently earned him Man of Year by Arabian Business Magazine, Global Leader of Tomorrow by the Executive Board of the World Economic Forum and the Editorial Board of Worldlink Magazine, and the Leadership Award of the 12th Arab Economic Forum.

Since 2005 SAGIA has been the architect behind the launch of an entirely new global product called “ECOnomic Cities.” These super-high-tech, 100% privately held total living and investing solutions will by 2020 have added over US$150 billion to the Saudi GDP, 1.5 million jobs, raised the per capital GDP from 13,000 to 33,500 and provided the ultimate living destinations to over 4.5 million people. Four of six have already been launched, with a total value of the five at over US$80 billion. These include King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh, Prince AbdulAziz Bin Musaed Economic City in Hail, Knowledge Economic City in Madina, and Jizan Economic City in Jizan.

Under His Excellency’s leadership the Kingdom has seen an increase in its global competitiveness rankings according to the World Bank’s Doing Business Report from 67 to 23 (ahead of all Arab countries and a few European countries such as Italy and Portugal). SAGIA’s ultimate objective is encapsulated in two numbers, 10x10, which is to put the Kingdom among the top ten in terms of global competitiveness by 2010. Toward this goal Governor Al-Dabbagh launched the National Competitiveness Center (NCC) in 2005, and also initiated the first ever comprehensive FDI survey in the Kingdom, with concluding data being used to identify and repair investment scenario weaknesses. (In 2006/7 UNCTAD ranked the Kingdom #1 in the region for attracting FDI.)

In 2006 the Governor took another step toward increased competitiveness by initiating an extensive study of the tax incentives offered to investors in 55 countries around the world and recommending tax credits as an incentive to attract FDI into the Kingdom’s Economic Cites and less developed regions. All recommendations were approved by the Ministry of Finance and this represented the first change to the national tax code since its introduction in 2001.

On the funds and VC side, Al-Dabbagh in 2005 seeded the venture capital and private equity investment industry in Saudi Arabia by launching five sector-focused funds managed completely by the private sector and raising more than US$1.7 billion of capital in the process (all with foreign equity and HR components).

His Excellency has been continually boosting the Kingdom’s capacity for international economic cooperation by 1) an ambitious program of bilateral cooperation which entails the signing of at least ten BITs a year, and 2) by launching a series of overseas offices, nine in total to date, all but one of which are staffed by women (putting SAGIA closer to its 50x10 goal, 50% female staff by 2010.)

Just after taking over as Governor, Al-Dabbagh augmented SAGIA’s capacity to serve individual investors by launching new “One-Step Shops”, and by introducing tailored investor facilitation packages in the form of Public Private Partnerships with key investors. Presently 9 PPPs are in operation with contributions totaling US$1.5 million.

Al-Dabbagh has been credited for his quarterly contribution to global business information resources with the launch of THINK Magazine, SAGIA’s quarterly publication

Boards (corporate and other)

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority;
Chairman of the Board of Directors, The Centennial Fund;
Chairman of the Saudi Arabia-Russia Joint Committee, Saudi Arabia-Switzerland Joint Committee, Saudi Arabia-Greece Joint Committee, Saudi Arabia-Ukraine Joint Committee, Saudi Arabia-Kazakhstan Joint Committee, Saudi Arabia-Senegal Joint Committee;
Founding Chairman, STARS Foundation;
Former Chairman of the Young Presidents Organization (in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain);
Member, World Economic Forum;
Member, Middle East Regional Advisory Board, London Business School (also an honorary alumnus);
Member of the Board or Trustees, Eisenhower Fellowships;
Member of the Board of Trustees, King Abdullah Charitable Housing Foundation;
Member of the Advisory Board, Friends of Saudi Arabia;
Former Board Member, Harvard Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East, John F. Kennedy School of Government;
Former Member, HRH Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, UK;
Formerly Founding Chairman, Jeddah Economic Forum;
Former Chairman, Jeddah Marketing Board;
Former Advisory Board Member, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector;
Former Board Member, Arab-French Chamber of Commerce;
Former Board Member, Board of Directors, Savola Group;
Former Board Member, Jeddah Chambers of Commerce & Industry (twice elected to consecutive, 4-year terms);
Former Vice President, Wildlife Conservation Foundation of Tanzania.

Education and continuing executive education and training programs (1989 >)

BA, King AbdulAziz University, Jeddah
Harvard Business School
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School
John F. Kennedy School of Government
London Business School
Merrill Lynch
Coutts & Co.
Banque Worms

Employment

1991 – 2004 CEO and President of the Dabbagh Group (1991 to the March 22, 2004). Under his stewardship the Group was reorganized into a portfolio-driven enterprise and experienced phenomenal growth in each of its five core areas of concentration: Telecommunication, Media & Technology (TMT), Energy, Food, Real Estate Development and Financial Services.