Farnham Castle - Middle Eastern Promise

By Donna Marsh, Consultant, Farnham Castle International Briefing & Conference Centre

The Middle East is a particularly diverse area in terms of its politics, religion, geography, economy and culture. This is un-surprising as it is made up of numerous nations including: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Yemen.

Yet despite the potential cultural challenges of doing business in the region, today, the Middle East is becoming an increasingly attractive prospect for exporters, as growth in some areas are outstripping the world average, while Europe and the West’s economies continue to struggle. For example: earlier this year, Bahrain entered the top 30 economies ranked by World Economic Forum, Egypt has been recognised as having now one of the fastest growing ICT markets globally by Business Monitor International (BMI).

Similarly, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), foreign direct investment is expected to grow by over 20 percent year on year. Tarek Kabrit, Principal at investment holding company, Siraj Capital, recently stated this is: “mainly due to the continuing global recession where international capital is looking for alternative markets to achieve the high returns they had grown accustomed to.”

However, nowhere is cross-cultural understanding arguably more important than when embarking on a business venture in the Middle East. To illustrate such cultural differences, take the simple example of language.

Within the various nations that make up the Middle East: Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, French, Baluchi, Urdu, Greek and Indian dialects are all spoken depending on which country you visit. If businesses are keen to explore commercial opportunities in the area or wish to maximise benefits from existing operations they must ensure their staff have an enhanced cultural knowledge of their particular host’s native culture.

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