Highlights of the lecture by Dr. Norbert Walter, The Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank Group.
The College of Business Administration (CBA) at Prince Sultan University is strongly committed to the ideas of knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination in the society. To achieve this objective, the CBA is continuously involved in arranging various activities like seminars, workshops and lectures by eminent scholars around the globe. One of the series of such activities was a lecture by Dr. Norbert Walter, The Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank Group.

Dr. Norbert Walter is also the CEO of Deutsche Bank Research. Before his current position he was a professor and director at the renowned Kiel Institute for World Economics and was a John J. McCloy Distinguished Research Fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC (1986-1987). He holds a PhD in economics from the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Dr. Norbert spoke on the issue of International Investments and opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. His lecture was comprehensive in a way that it covered socio-psychological, politico-economics, and cultural aspects of our lives. It was divided into three parts.

In the first part of his lecture, Dr. Norbert pointed to the sociological problem in the world where many of the developing countries are blemished in poverty and cannot provide food and education to their children. If these children are given good education, the developing countries can develop more by having productive human capital in the society. Thus, he pointed to the solution of the problem through participation by the developed/rich nations who can assist the countries with lack of resources. He also added if immigrants from developing and poor world are allowed to work in the developed countries, this will bring prosperity to both the developed and developing world. To support his argument, he cited the example of Turkish immigrants in Germany, who have been very successful in helping the country through small–medium enterprises.

The second part of his lecture focused on the main theme, i.e. the issue of investments in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. He was strongly of the view that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region has to diversify their economies and relieve themselves from their dependence on the oil sector. Since world demand for oil is increasing rapidly and oil resources are decreasing gradually, the world should find the new ways of energy like solar and wind energy. The idea of solar and wind energies is a viable option for a country like Saudi Arabia where sunlight is in abundance and winds are frequent. He came up with the novel idea that the oil producing countries including Saudi Arabia should take measures to reduce oil supply in the world market. This would lead to a supply-demand imbalance and the price of oil would increase in the international market. Expensive energy, through the use of hydro-carbons, would force the world to find new and cheaper sources of energy rather than only depending upon oil and misusing the precious resource.

The final part of his lecture was the concluding one. Here he talked about the idea of diversification not only within the economy but also internationally. He gave the example of diary products where he asserted that rather than having milk from within Saudi Arabia, one can easily import from Hamburg or somewhere else, as long as it’s competitive.

The lecture was followed by question–answer session, which was really informative and thought-provoking.

The lecture, organised at the university auditorium on 22nd of May, 2007 at 10.00 am, was attended by a large number of audiences including the Rector of PSU, the Vice Rectors, the Dean of the CBA, faculty members and a good number of students both from men’s and women’s colleges.