Economic Growth in MENA: The Challenge of Youth and the Imperative of Pragmatism

Economic Growth in MENA: The Challenge of Youth and the Imperative of Pragmatism Two years  and half ago I wrote an article for Middle East Business and News Magazine, entitled “The Middle East Must Look East”, arguing that the Middle East should look to East Asia – South Korea, China, Taiwan, ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) – for inspiration and lessons on achieving economic growth. Forty years ago the East Asian region was totally shambolic; the cultural revolution was still raging in China and the Vietnam War was coming to an extremely brutal end as hundreds-of-thousands of ‘boat people’ escaped to seek international refuge – ultimately numbering an estimated two-million. Twenty years later the World Bank published its seminal report, The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy.