Under the Royal Patronage of His Royal Highness King Abdullah II, policy makers, government officials, and business representatives from across the Middle East and around the world gathered at the Mövenpick Hotel on the Dead Sea, in Jordan in November 2007 to discuss how economic freedom can improve the lives of people living throughout the Arab world.

The two day conference was co-hosted by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation office in Jordan, the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Jordan, the International Research Foundation of Oman (IRF), and The Fraser Institute of Canada.

Her Excellency Suhair Al-Ali, Minister of Planning for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, delivered the keynote address, in which she discussed the necessity for and challenges of reforms in Jordan.

His Excellency Salem Khazaaleh, Minister of Industry & Trade for Jordan attended the conference as the King's representative.

Presentations on economic freedom and its benefits, entrepreneurship, globalization and income inequality, business regulation, and reforms in Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt followed. The conference concluded with a thought provoking session on security versus liberty. The US Patriot Act, emergency laws in the Middle East and Asia, and terrorism acts in the EU are all based on the assumption that liberty and security are mutually exclusive. That is, the assumption is that we have to give up liberty to gain security. The session focused on a few examples of security laws in the Arab world and how to model and empirically test this hypothesis.

The highlight of the conference was the gala dinner and awards ceremony. On November 22nd at the M�venpick Hotel on the Dead Sea, Arab countries that have made the most progress in providing their citizens with economic freedom were honoured during an awards ceremony hosted by the International Research Foundation (IRF) from Oman in association with The Fraser Institute. The Economic Freedom of the Arab World awards were based on the Economic Freedom of the Arab World report which measures economic freedom in the Arab nations.

Mohab Murrar, CEO and founder of BEAT was among the panelists at the conference.