Entrepreneurs: An MME roundtable

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Dramatic economic expansion in the Middle East has forced the region to shop around for talent.

Expatriate workers have been moving there in numbers, tempted by the promise of healthy pay packets and exciting opportunities.

But now, the region's starting to look closer to home as it consolidates its wealth.

This week, MME speaks with two leading business figures in the region: Esam Janahi, Chairman of Bahrain's leading Islamic investment bank, Gulf Finance House, and Ferit Sahenk, Chairman of Turkish conglomerate, the Dogus Group.

John Defterios (JD) sat down with both business leaders and started with this question:

(JD): Bill Gates has said something that is quite interesting, that the Middle East needs to foster a culture of risk-taking and innovation using technology to advance intellectual capital in the future. How are we progressing in the region on this front?

Esam Janahi (EJ): All in all, yes in terms of real intellectual assets in the region everyone is trying to pick that up and be attached with that model.

(JD): Ferit, do you think this current generation, your generation, our generation, is going to lead into a long sustainable economic model, that is not just based on commodities?

Ferit Sahenk (FS): Well, when I look at the new generation, what I like the most, apart from what we have been talking about, is the interaction among people, the collaboration creating these synergies. Seventy-five percent of the growth is now coming from the mid-sized Turkish companies. These are all family businesses, many of them second-generation. It just shows that when there is an economic platform that is created by the government, people have more energy to take risks; people have more willingness to take risks. I think this is part of our people, our generation as well; we are still hungry for success.

(JD): There is pressure throughout the Middle East right now to create jobs. Do you feel comfortable with 80 million more workers coming into the workforce in the next ten years that this will be a success?

(EJ): I think there are a lot of reforms happening within the region, a lot of forums to help Arab young leaders, just to push and address those unemployment figures for the GCC market. The two biggest things between 2007 and 2012 was how can we create the private sector to become an accelerator for economic development projects. This is where you can bring up the level of entrepreneurialship and innovation can take place while you are little bit in short labor.

(JD): Are you a believer, Ferit, from Turkey through to China, with South Asia included that this belt of growth is going to be the driver for the global economy, almost the rescuer of the global economy?

(FS): Of course when things happen, like the subprime mortgage problem in the U.S., that's originated from a market like the United States, it affects us very much. But what we are seeing is the developing world is going to be the engine of the world, definitely. We are living in a globalized world. I am expecting not only India and China but the whole growing world will affect the growth of the economies.

(JD): These sovereign wealth funds could actually help in a liquidity crisis or a slowdown. Ferit, in your view, can you have it both ways? Can you have transparency and a code of conduct and still have the capital?

(FS): You know, I personally believe in globalization very much. To debate globalization is too late, it's already there. Sovereign funds, as long as they are treated as any other investors, and they do their investment with the psychology, with the evaluation techniques, just the way any other investor does, I think there should be no problem. We should not be somehow afraid of a fund because it carries the brand name, or the brand, or the country.

(JD): Are you concerned -- you see front page articles both in the Business Week and the Economist about sovereign wealth funds -- that the competition amongst investors in the Gulf for trophy properties is getting a little bit ahead of itself? It's not on valuation only, but to capture so of the best global brands in the world?

(EJ): At the end of the day they are going to invest. Investors are so sophisticated today it's not anymore the normal technical sentiment that you want to get from the market. People work out their way through fundamental analysis.

(JD): Ferit, what are your thoughts?

(FS): These people are as sophisticated as the ones in the West. Many of them are Harvard-educated, Oxford-educated. Here they are British English, American English. They have the same laptops, they have the same thinking, their passports are different. There should not be any prejudice about investors. We are in a globalized world, capital doesn't have flag, capital doesn't have color, it doesn't have anything, so we should be open to it. I hope they do make the right investments. E-mail to a friend