Born in Bolta\u00f1a (Huesca), Carlos Conde holds a degree in Political Science and Sociology and a PhD in Political Science and Public Administration from the Complutense University of Madrid. He served as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Political Science in Granada and as a tenured professor at that university, as well as visiting professor at Harvard between 1995 and 1996, and at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, in the early 2000s. He joined the OECD in 2007, where he headed the Africa Partnership team and, between 2007 and 2011, the MENA-OECD Good Governance Programme. He currently serves as Head of the Middle East and North Africa Division within the OECD’s Directorate for Global Relations and Cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carlos Conde began by recalling why the Gulf matters to the entire world. It sits at the center of the world’s energy infrastructure, holding a substantial share of global oil and gas reserves and daily flows, meaning any development there disrupts commodity markets and inflation expectations. Adding to this is its financial weight: its sovereign wealth funds rank among the largest on the planet, and its outward investment is growing fast, increasingly directed toward infrastructure, technology, and clean energy. The recent crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, Conde noted, exposed just how deeply these economies are intertwined with the rest of the world\u2014and not only through energy: between 25% and 35% of the world’s fertilizer commodity trade passes through the strait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet stopping at the image of the Gulf as an oil-rent economy would be a mistake, he warned. Over two decades, the weight of hydrocarbons in GDP has clearly declined: in Saudi Arabia, from 54% in 2005 to 37% in 2025; in the UAE, from 31% to 28%. Behind this lie highly ambitious reform agendas, framed as national “visions” that share four common goals: improving the business climate, embracing digitalization and artificial intelligence, developing more mature financial markets, and opening up to international trade and investment. The UAE led the way twenty years ago. Saudi Arabia came later, but its Vision 2030, driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is today one of the most far-reaching transformation efforts underway, advancing, he noted, at a pace that often goes unnoticed outside the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carlos Conde dwelt on a dimension that rarely makes headlines: human capital, and in particular, the role of women. Educational progress has been notable. In Saudi Arabia, more than 80% of women of university age are enrolled in higher education, and in science and technical disciplines, Gulf countries now outperform a good part of OECD members. Female labor force participation is rising, though unevenly and still lagging behind these educational gains. A recent World Bank report ranks Saudi Arabia as the country that has taken its legislative reforms furthest, repealing forms of discrimination that persist elsewhere in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In research and development, the starting point is lower, but the curve is rising: patent grants have increased by 25% since 2015. What is interesting, Conde pointed out, is the model itself. Rather than building large, general-purpose universities, these countries choose a handful of priority sectors\u2014digital technologies, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, health\u2014and concentrate their efforts there, often outside traditional universities and alongside the venture capital fueled by their sovereign wealth funds, from Saudi Arabia’s PIF to the Qatar Development Bank. The results are visible even in student mobility: in 2023, the UAE recorded a net positive balance of 64% between students it received and those it sent abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The OECD itself is an active part of this process. It began working with the UAE years ago on public governance, strategic planning, and competitiveness, but the most significant agreement is the one it signed with Saudi Arabia in 2024. That protocol has opened the doors of the organization’s committees and platforms to a G20 country, with reform commitments and adherence to international standards spanning investment policy, anti-corruption efforts, and the use of artificial intelligence. As a sign of this shift, Conde noted that this year, for the first time, Gulf countries took part in the OECD’s annual ministerial conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second part of his remarks turned to relations with the Euro-Mediterranean space. In trade, complementarities coexist with sharp asymmetries, and one figure sums up the new landscape: in 2023, China overtook the European Union as the region’s top trading partner. Non-oil trade is gaining ground, but a free trade agreement remains distant; negotiations broke down in 2008, and today bilateral agreements are the preferred path, starting with the UAE. In investment, the balance is more even: Gulf countries are major investors in Europe, with a clear preference for its markets, while European investment into the Gulf still runs into regulatory obstacles and the weight of the public sector. Modernizing that framework, he argued, is a prerequisite for attracting more European capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final theme, connectivity, was shaped by current events. Before the conflict, it might have been told as a success story: leading ports, efficient logistics, a system built around maritime transport. The Red Sea and Hormuz crises have instead exposed its fragility\u2014not only for the Gulf. Hence the growing interest in diversifying routes. Countries in the region are participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but also in projects designed to bring them closer to Europe, such as the IMEC corridor linking India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean, or various rail connections through Iraq and Turkey, Jordan and Syria, or Egypt. Building more resilient infrastructure, he predicted, will be one of the major issues of the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The discussion addressed these economies’ priorities in the face of decarbonization and the technological revolution; the future of oil demand; and the implications of the recent understanding between the United States and Iran, as well as a possible toll on transit through Hormuz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carlos Conde closed with an underlying idea: the Gulf has gained presence and influence within the multilateral economic architecture, and this rise rests less and less on oil and increasingly on structural reforms whose results are beginning to show. For them to take root, he stressed, will require strengthening economic governance and building transparent, predictable institutions on par with international best practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aranzazu \u00c1lvarez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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