Middle East, the new Europe?

Let's be honest the 2020's have been quite a hectic decade so far, starting off with the Covid-19 pandemic, the rise and fall (and potentially rise again) of digital assets and the coining of new terms in the labour market such as "The Great Resignation" and "Quiet Quitting" and the war in Europe, it has been quite hectic.

There is no doubt that places in the Middle East such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are booming, years of high oil and gas prices and relatively low exposure to social payments during Covid (due to a large expat workforce) have left the GCC states awash with cash.

In Dubai the buzz is everywhere from retail, real estate, tech and government spending is going through the roof.

So following HH MBS recent speech where he said the region can be "The New Europe", ?his “war” was restoring the Middle East to its past glory. “I believe the new Europe is the Middle East,” Prince Mohammed said. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in five years will be completely different.” Is this possible?

As Europe turns to the Middle East for it's energy supplies for the medium term it certainly creates a seat for the GCC at the top table.

Some other factors in its favour:

1. Young, digitally fluent population
2. Low / No-tax attracting top talent from around the world
3. Cash rich governments, ME Sovereign funds spend $89 billion last year
4. Perfectly connected to east and west

It will be interesting to see how the next 5 years play out and if HH MBS vision can become a reality.