Why does industry fail in the Arab world while it is successful in the West?

It is certain that the Arab peoples yearn to see a model of local development that saves everyone from the clutches of backwardness, poverty and humiliation, and carries within it a true industrial experience capable of creating internal mobility and producing a known local product. like the country and competing for its share in foreign markets.

The desire for something often arises from lack of it, and this is what is true of industry in the Arab world, which has since time immemorial experienced a huge industrial depression in a fragile economic system that lacks mobility and solid foundations due to multiplicity of structural obstacles in an environment plagued by chronic diseases, and the attention of its people is limited to the past rather than the turnout. About the future.

The dilemma, in fact, is more than economic par excellence, as it is intertwined with factors and events that are difficult to dismantle and face. When we talk about industry, we are talking about the continuous hard work that incubates creativity by crystallizing theoretical thinking into practical thinking for the production of materiality. It is clear, therefore, that the process is too broad to be codified in a purely technical key, as it is a process of historical development, where geographical data merge with psychological, intellectual and cognitive ones.

Intellectual and cognitive structures

Existing intellectual structures have perpetuated the reality of the absence of reason, necessary for development.

It is certain that industrial thought is concerned with nature and dives into its worlds to understand its secrets and adapt the process of managing its treasures. There is a friendly and positive dialogue between the Western mind and nature, while our relationship as Arabs has remained hostile to it, and the distance between us and the material has grown further and alienated, which explains the lack of industrial training. and practical industrial thinking. The origin of material development and well-being is based on the individual’s relationship with materialism and on innovation, experimentation and risk-taking, which is lacking in the Arab citizen, who prefers introversion in the context of habit and the prevailing lifestyle, preferring tradition to ensure stability and safety.

As is well known, the initiatives start from theoretical thought that turns into practical and productive thought, but this natural passage is interrupted in the Arab reality and does not happen, and the gap between them remains deep for various reasons which in turn require a process of excavation and dismantling. Confronting with what is and limiting oneself to thinking about what is possible, in the total absence of rationality. There is a natural tendency to choose what relieves the soul, removes distress and misery from it, and responds to immediate interest instead of focusing on hardship, suffering and risk. There are no participatory schemes deriving from in-depth studies, but only emotional phenomena and deterministic reactions unable to influence phenomena that have their roots in time.

The structure of the Arab community

Perhaps it has not happened that Arab society has moved from a primitive / agricultural society to an advanced industrial society. By analogy, this logical shift from village to city lifestyle has not been achieved. The local economy has remained rudimentary, based on pastoralism, trade and agriculture, given the tribal structure of Arab societies and the geographical factor.

Despite the passing of the years and the development that has stabilized in most regions, cross-fertilization with other civilizations and the emergence of new enrichment resources,

The concept of wealth remained limited and the structure of the local economy was fragile because it did not get rid of the primitive character. Even the principles of rent and monopoly have been deepened into its fabric despite the impression that the appearance can express contrary to what is esoteric.

How can industrial thinking be established in an environment dominated by rents and respect for addiction and the principle of profiting from trade and booty and despising individual initiative and creativity?

It is natural, therefore, that Arab societies lack a bourgeois class that embraces industrial initiative and is eager to lead society as long as there is an oppressive political system that monopolizes everything and imposes protection on all.

Problems of organization and management

There is a structural problem in the management, administration and management of resources. Perhaps we, as Arabs, have not got rid of the Bedouin tendency, the tendency to chaos, not to submit to the law and to act according to humor and whims, without submitting to wisdom, logic and civil order.

What makes mud worse:

The inability of the educational system to mobilize and qualify human resources to fulfill its duties based on attention to the psychological and mental factor, developing the patriotic sense instead of the tribal sense and building effective critical thinking.

Not encouraging the education system for creativity by focusing on indoctrination and rigorous legalization and not being open to new knowledge, science and experimental applications.

The production process is based on discipline, accuracy, specialization and the rational distribution of tasks and can be a reflection of the data of a cultural reality rather than simple technical or logistical data.

Technical and logistical factors

These factors often express the weakness of the local economy and the inconsistency of the environment in which it is inserted with the requirements for building a strong modern economy.

It is certain that Arab societies are consumer societies par excellence in search of available availability and aversion to production and creation. Therefore, local industrial units find it difficult to prove themselves due to citizens’ devotion to foreign goods and lack of confidence in the local product, which affects the competitiveness of the local business which already suffers from the limited local market AND the absence of financial support. .

The technical obstacles represented by the inconsistency of the production process with the needs of the local market and its focus on the export process due to the weakness of the local purchasing power and its search for outlets able to sell its products are evident. in addition to the weakness of the commercialization process, the absence of intellectual property protection, and schismatic scientific research on private sector activities.

All that has been mentioned explains the lack of accumulation of experience and the vulnerability of the fragile local private sector.

External factor

It is logical that we find a hand in the external factor in the dilemma of Arab industrial weakness, as long as external colonialism previously robbed the national initiative and aborted all attempts at Renaissance reform, and was at the basis of the process of deprivation of the whole capacity for reform to sustain its control and monopolize the natural assets of Arab countries and make them permanent markets for the disposal of its products. Its producer / consumer equation remains sacred and inadmissible.

Perhaps the change begins by changing the perception of things and analyzing reality with an objective and rational analysis to establish the process of reconstruction, even if it only materializes in an attempt that arises from the aspirations of the Arab peoples.