New, practical steps must be taken if Egypt is to maintain its position as the fulcrum of the Middle East, writes Ibrahim Nafie I have just returned from a tour of the Gulf, which included Kuwait, the UAE, Oman and Bahrain. The tour celebrated the first anniversary of the Arab World edition of Al-Ahram and, simultaneously, the inauguration of the new Al-Ahram bureau in Media City, Dubai; a development that enables readers in the Gulf to get their Al- Ahram the same morning it appears on the stands in Egypt. The dual celebration occasioned, on its fringes, a very productive seminar on Egyptian-Gulf relations that brought together experts from the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies and numerous writers and intellectuals from the Gulf. There was also extensive dialogue on the idea of establishing the first inter-Arab NGO to operate in the international domain and focus on world opinion and decision-makers in the West. Perhaps the most salient characteristic of the discussions that took place in the various forums was the participants' candor in presenting their points of view. Indeed, many were outspoken in their criticism of the performance of many Egyptian agencies and organisations, a reproach that emanated from their faith in the vitality of the Egyptian role at the bilateral and regional levels. If the dialogues produced a minute diagnosis of the current situation in the Arab world, they also exposed many aspects in which Egyptian presence is felt to be sorely missing. They underscored in particular the hopes pinned on legislative and administrative changes that would facilitate the flow of Gulf investment capital into Egypt. The tenor and substance of the discussions that took place in the seminar on Egyptian- Gulf relations compel me to register a number of general observations on the current situation in the Gulf. The first is that the countries of the Gulf have progressed considerably in many domains, a fact that I sensed palpably in every one of the countries I visited during my tour. Suffice it to say that Dubai is in the process of constructing the tallest skyscraper in the world and the first hotel in the world to be entirely under water. But, perhaps more important than those visible changes is the development in norms of behaviour and ethical standards commensurate to infrastructural progress. It was also clear that these countries have taken great strides forward in their industrial infrastructure. Many now possess a diversity of advanced industries that rival one another in their drive to up their exports to international markets. That the governments may have given these industries considerable support does nothing to alter the reality of their increasing success, which is to a large measure contingent upon their strict adherence to international specification standards and the consequent confidence this has won them at home and abroad. Such changes compel us in Egypt to change our attitudes towards the Gulf. Egyptian citizens and officials should open their eyes to the true reality in the Gulf countries, which is nothing short of a comprehensive revival. What struck me, secondly, was the priority given in these countries to the "national self" over Arab nationalism. Leaders, officials and public opinion pundits there almost unanimously urge their public to concentrate on achieving massive comprehensive development at home so as to boost their country's regional status and build more effective, "realistic" relations with international powers. A number of writers and intellectuals in the Gulf have gone to great lengths to question the value of supra-national bonds based on common language, ethnic origin and religious affiliation. These factors may be important in bringing peoples and nations closer together, they argue, but they are not sufficient in themselves to promote successful experiences in regional cooperation. By way of example, one person said that with all due respect for the bonds of brotherhood he feels for countries such as Djibouti and Somalia, his country shares far more important interests with Australia. I observed, thirdly, a general feeling among Gulf officials and entrepreneurs that Egypt is not living up to the important place it has in the minds and hearts of people in the Gulf. They complain bitterly that Egypt does not take part in the many and diverse activities these countries host and that Egypt, moreover, demonstrates little interest in the developments taking place in these countries. Economically, Egypt is grossly underrepresented in the Gulf, especially when compared to our cultural and political weight in the Arab world. This sentiment is shared by a number of Egyptians living in the Gulf who point to Egypt's dismal showing in the recent industrial fair in Bahrain. In an international exhibition of that stature, in which the world's most industrialised nations participate, Egyptian companies showed up with embarrassing displays of poorly manufactured aluminum pots and pans and a number of other cheap and tacky household wares and accessories. Apparently, we also had people on hand to collect donations. Is that the kind of commercial profile we want to present abroad? Certainly many businessmen in the Gulf know we can do much better, having seen for themselves during their visits to Egypt manufactures far superior in quality and sophistication to anything they have seen in the trade fairs in their own countries. Another old, yet still frequently aired, grievance is against the inordinate amount of red tape and other bureaucratic complications investors from the Gulf encounter in Egypt. Businessmen and entrepreneurs readily acknowledge the great improvements in the Egyptian investment climate at the upper echelons of relevant government sectors. However, lower down the ladder they find that functionaries and employees are ever more inventive in the ways they devise to obstruct new enterprises, as though they perceived it their job to get rid of those foreign investors rather than encouraging them to come back and invest more. There is no doubt that we have made considerable inroads in facilitating the business of serious investors, but we must take such complaints earnestly, all the more so when they are aired by people who regard Egypt with such great respect. To return, now, to the seminar on Egyptian-Gulf relations, in which, as I said, I was impressed by the high degree of frankness and somewhat perturbed by the mutual "recriminations", participants dwelt at length on a range of important political, economic and cultural topics. In the course of these discussions, perhaps what took me most by surprise was that the participants from the Gulf pointed to Egypt's absence in another important domain: culture. Specifically, they said that much of Egypt's cultural production, from publications to films and music, does not reach the Gulf directly from Egypt, but rather is pirated by companies elsewhere in the Arab world and that these pirated copies are now virtually the only way people in the Gulf can have access to Egyptian cultural material. Writers and intellectuals in the Gulf took the opportunity to exhort the relevant agencies in Egypt to devote more attention both to matters of copyright and marketing because of the millions of dollars in royalties that would accrue to Egypt. Hardly had the seminar ended than academic and research centres in the Gulf inundated me with requests for more seminars that could be co-sponsored with Al-Ahram Strategic Studies Centre; hopefully, many said, on an ongoing basis. And why not? As productive as the seminar was there is so much about Egypt-Gulf relations that still needs to be explored, not only with regard to general political, economic and social issues, but also with regard to the practical details and technicalities needed to activate cooperative endeavours. Certainly, everything I saw and heard during this recent tour only confirmed my delight that Al-Ahram is now printed simultaneously in four Arab capitals and strengthened my determination to bring Al-Ahram to readers throughout the Arab world. The Al-Ahram Arab World edition is well on its way to become the newspaper of the Arab world, putting paid to that oft-cited complaint that ours is too "Egyptian" a newspaper and does not give sufficient attention to the rest of the Arab world. In addition, the reproaches and grievances aired at the seminar also confirmed my long-held conviction that Egypt must do more to assert its regional role and that this must be done on solid, practical foundations. The Arab world has changed enormously and we in Egypt must acknowledge this change and accommodate it into policies that emanate from a sound assessment of facts and realities rather than from hollow slogans that no one buys anymore. When officials and intellectuals in the Gulf say their countries should prioritise domestic over regional advancement we should understand this perspective as an appeal to lay the concrete foundations for ever-expanding realms of inter-Arab collaboration. By building determinedly from the bottom up, similar to the process the Europeans set into motion following WWII and that eventually led to the EU, the Arabs, too, can forge pioneering frameworks for regional integration. Objective and realistic -- these should become Egypt's operative words in formulating a new approach to the advancement of inter-Arab cooperation. Once we put these principles into effect, we will already have gone a long way towards setting into motion a process of qualitative and sustainable transformation. As was more than apparent during my recent tour, people in the Gulf still look up to Egypt and hope for closer and more fruitful interaction. The question is whether we in Egypt are ready to do what is necessary to rise to this calling.
