Majid Al-Futtaim CEO Alain Bejjani joins Atlantic Council empowerME Conversations host Amjad Ahmad for a conversation about the future of retail in the Middle East, consumer desires for more modern and fulfilling experiences, and policies that will promote talent from the inside and economic growth.

Key Takeaways:
0:00 Intro
1:13 Alain talks about the pandemic and what he is now seeing post pandemic given that he operates in different countries and its impact on business in the Middle East
5:20 Alain explains if the pandemic was the turning point of the economy especially in the Middle East region 
12:19 Alain talks about the key areas that people need to focus on to keep the momentum of growth going and to even accelerate it especially in the Middle East 
19:32 Alain talks about the importance of regional integrations and how he feels about where it’s headed to especially in the Middle East Region 
21:10 Alain talks about the consumer trends that he is seeing in the Middle East region that have come up due to the pandemic 
29:35 Alain also talks about retail, how the retail space is changing, how he sees retail going forward and if it’s dying 
36:35 Alain shares his thoughts evolving around the digital entrepreneurship that's happening and how he sees that playing out
39:43 Alain talks about the lessons that he has learnt through the failures that he has encountered
41:44 Alain shares his advice to other entrepreneurs and also talks about the space that would invest in that would be good for business 

Shows Mentioned:
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/ 
WHO: http://www.who.int/ 
FDI: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/foreign-direct-investment-fdi/ 
Carrefour: https://www.carrefour.com/en 
Mall of Oman: http://mallofoman.net/ 
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/ 

Quotes Mentioned:
“The pandemic was a wakeup call on many aspects and a wakeup call for everyone, with no exception.”
“Different markets, different realities.”
“The well-being and the happiness of your citizens and residents matter.”
“You only know the value of what you have until you don't have it anymore.”
“One shouldn't waste any crisis or shouldn't let any crisis go to waste.”
“Retail is not going to die, retail will continue to be here, but it's going to be here in different ways.”

Guests Social Media Links: 
Website: https://www.majidalfuttaim.com/en 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alainbejjani/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alainbejjani 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alain.bejjani/