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Saudi Govt. Bodies to Deploy Int’l Foreign Expertise

The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) appoints Dr. Konrad Pesendorfer as president to transform it into a world-class Statistical Authority. Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic
The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) appoints Dr. Konrad Pesendorfer as president to transform it into a world-class Statistical Authority. Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic
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Saudi Govt. Bodies to Deploy Int’l Foreign Expertise

The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) appoints Dr. Konrad Pesendorfer as president to transform it into a world-class Statistical Authority. Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic
The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) appoints Dr. Konrad Pesendorfer as president to transform it into a world-class Statistical Authority. Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic

Saudi Arabia intends to benefit from foreign expertise on the level of government bodies in an effort to develop government performance and upscale it to advanced levels.

The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) announced in an official statement that the Board of Directors, under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, appointed Dr. Konrad Pesendorfer as president of the General Authority for Statistics.

According to GASTAT, Dr. Konrad will be working alongside with GASTAT’s team of national caliber to improve and oversee the statistical work, and to achieve GASTAT’s transformation goals by turning it into a world-class Statistical Authority capable of fulfilling its roles and functions like its counterparts of the G20 countries; by adopting the best international practices used at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

This decision by GASTAT’s Board of Directors is to stress on efforts made towards achieving The National Strategy for Statistical Development that was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2019.

This strategy seeks to develop and enhance the statistical work in Saudi Arabia, and ensure its sustainability in providing accurate statistical data at the right time that can be available to researchers, decision makers, and investors.

This will achieve the collaboration that is compatible with the data and information policies in Saudi Arabia that attains a high level of transparency and integration, and fulfills all efforts related to the statistical field.

Pesendorfer was appointed as GASTAT’s president after he worked as an acting president since last January. His appointment is comparable to other international appointments that have achieved remarkable success. He is one of the world’s prominent experts in managing statistical organizations.

Dr. Konrad was the director general of Statistics Austria from 2010 until 2019 and represented Austria in the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC), the top decision-making body of the European Statistical System, where the heads of European Statistical Institutes and Eurostat gather regularly.

He was also appointed as the Chairman of the Committee for Statistics and Statistical Policy of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2016.

Pesendorfer was also the co-chair of the Board of Directors of the International Comparison Program of the United Nations and the World Bank (with India), and Counselor to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt before.

Dr. Konrad holds PhD in economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. In addition, he was lecturer on international economics at the H.E.C. Business School in Paris and at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in Paris.

The appointment of Dr. Konrad for this position is consistent with other international experiences in enhancing the statistical work and attracting international experts, like the appointment of New Zealand’s former government statistician Leonard Warren Cook as director of the National Statistics Office in the United Kingdom and the appointment of Mark Carney as the governor of the British Central Bank in 2008.

This illustrates that experience exchange practices used worldwide are effective in closing the knowledge gap and bringing outstanding experiences.

With its G20 presidency, Saudi Arabia aims to achieve strategic goals in developing its economic and developmental system in order to strengthen its position among top economies in the world.

The GASTAT, within the National Strategy for Statistical Development framework will work to link between different government and private entities, to develop national human capital at all levels, and to improve the technical environment supporting statistical work.

GASTAT will also adopt the best global experiences that will contribute to achieving the maturity if statistical data sector; and will work jointly with national universities and relevant educational institutions to build a specialized statistical generation through training national caliber who will lead the statistical work in the Kingdom in future.

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Business

Leading Harvard Trade Economist Says Saudi Arabia Holds Key to Success in Fragmented Global Economy

Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
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Leading Harvard Trade Economist Says Saudi Arabia Holds Key to Success in Fragmented Global Economy

Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).

Harvard University economics professor Pol Antràs said Saudi Arabia represents an exceptional model in the shifting global trade landscape, differing fundamentally from traditional emerging-market frameworks. He also stressed that globalization has not ended but has instead re-formed into what he describes as fragmented integration.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, Antràs said Saudi Arabia’s Vision-driven structural reforms position the Kingdom to benefit from the ongoing phase of fragmented integration, adding that the country’s strategic focus on logistics transformation and artificial intelligence constitutes a key engine for sustainable growth that extends beyond the volatility of global crises.

Antràs, the Robert G. Ory Professor of Economics at Harvard University, is one of the leading contemporary theorists of international trade. His research, which reshaped understanding of global value chains, focuses on how firms organize cross-border production and how regulation and technological change influence global trade flows and corporate decision-making.

He said conventional classifications of economies often obscure important structural differences, noting that the term emerging markets groups together countries with widely divergent industrial bases. Economies that depend heavily on manufacturing exports rely critically on market access and trade integration and therefore face stronger competitive pressures from Chinese exports that are increasingly shifting toward alternative markets.

Saudi Arabia, by contrast, exports extensively while facing limited direct competition from China in its primary export commodity, a situation that creates a strategic opportunity. The current environment allows the Kingdom to obtain imports from China at lower cost and access a broader range of goods that previously flowed largely toward the United States market.

Addressing how emerging economies should respond to dumping pressures and rising competition, Antràs said countries should minimize protectionist tendencies and instead position themselves as committed participants in the multilateral trading system, allowing foreign producers to access domestic markets while encouraging domestic firms to expand internationally.

He noted that although Chinese dumping presents concerns for countries with manufacturing sectors that compete directly with Chinese production, the risk is lower for Saudi Arabia because it does not maintain a large manufacturing base that overlaps directly with Chinese exports. Lower-cost imports could benefit Saudi consumers, while targeted policy tools such as credit programs, subsidies, and support for firms seeking to redesign and upgrade business models represent more effective responses than broad protectionist measures.

Globalization has not ended

Antràs said globalization continues but through more complex structures, with trade agreements increasingly negotiated through diverse arrangements rather than relying primarily on multilateral negotiations. Trade deals will continue to be concluded, but they are likely to become more complex, with uncertainty remaining a defining feature of the global trading environment.

Interest rates and artificial intelligence

According to Antràs, high global interest rates, combined with the additional risk premiums faced by emerging markets, are constraining investment, particularly in sectors that require export financing, capital expenditure, and continuous quality upgrading.

However, he noted that elevated interest rates partly reflect expectations of stronger long-term growth driven by artificial intelligence and broader technological transformation.

He also said if those growth expectations materialize, productivity gains could enable small and medium-sized enterprises to forecast demand more accurately and identify previously untapped markets, partially offsetting the negative effects of higher borrowing costs.

Employment concerns and the role of government

The Harvard professor warned that labor markets face a dual challenge stemming from intensified Chinese export competition and accelerating job automation driven by artificial intelligence, developments that could lead to significant disruptions, particularly among younger workers. He said governments must adopt proactive strategies requiring substantial fiscal resources to mitigate near-term labor-market shocks.

According to Antràs, productivity growth remains the central condition for success: if new technologies deliver the anticipated productivity gains, governments will gain the fiscal space needed to compensate affected groups and retrain the workforce, achieving a balance between addressing short-term disruptions and investing in long-term strategic gains.

Business

Aljadaan: Emerging Markets Account for 70% of Global Growth

Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
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Aljadaan: Emerging Markets Account for 70% of Global Growth

Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat

Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Aljadaan stressed Sunday that the world economy is going through a “profound transition,” saying emerging markets and developing economies now account for nearly 60 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in purchasing power terms and over 70 percent of global growth.

In his opening remarks at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, organized by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the IMF in AlUla, the minister said these economies have become an increasingly important driver of global growth with their share of global economy more than doubling since 2010.

“Today, the 10 emerging economies in the G20 alone account for more than half of the world growth. Yet, they face a more complex and fragmented environment, elevated debt levels, slower trade growth and increasing exposure to geopolitical shocks.”

“Unfortunately, more than half of low income countries are either in or at the risk of debt distress. At the same time global trade growth has slowed at around half of what it was pre the pandemic,” Aljadaan added.

The Finance Minister stressed that the Saudi experience over the past decade has reinforced three lessons that may be relevant to the discussions at the two-day conference, which brings together a select group of ministers and central bank governors, leaders of international organizations, leading investors and academics.

“First, macroeconomic stability is not the enemy of growth. It is actually the foundation,” he said.

“Structural reforms deliver results only when institutions deliver. So there is no point of reforming ... if the institutions are unable to deliver,” he stated.

Finally, he said that “international cooperation matters more, not less, in a fragmented world.”

Business

Georgieva from AlUla: Growth Still Lacks Pre-pandemic Levels

Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Georgieva from AlUla: Growth Still Lacks Pre-pandemic Levels

Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Sunday that world growth still lacks pre-pandemic levels, expressing concern as she expected more shocks amid high spending and rising debt levels in many countries.

Georgieva spoke at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, organized by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the IMF in AlUla.

The two-day conference brings together a select group of ministers and central bank governors, leaders of international organizations, leading investors and academics to deliberate on policies to global stability, prosperity, and multilateral collaboration.

Georgieva said that the conference was launched last year in recognition of the growing role of emerging market economies in a world of sweeping transformations.

“I came out of this gathering .... With a sense of hope for the pragmatic attitude and determination to pursue good policies and build strong institutions,” she said.

Georgieva stressed that “good policies pay off,” and said that growth rates across emerging economies reached four percent this year, exceeding by a large margin those of advanced economies that are around 1.5 percent.