The economic diversification can be achieved in the GCC by widening the knowledge base of the economy, said an expert while speaking at a seminar in Abu Dhabi.

The event was organised by Insead, a leading international business school, in association with the Royal Norwegian embassy on Tuesday to discuss the pivotal role knowledge plays in economic diversification, especially in the GCC region.

The inaugural 'Insead Policy Breakfast' was attended by senior executives and leading scholars, from government and private institutions.

“The GCC economies are not alone in facing the challenges of economic diversification. Whether countries are rich in natural resources or not, their economies are in need of diversification to lessen their dependency on one economic sector,” remarked Dr Sami Mahroum, executive and research director of Insead’s Innovation & Policy Initiative.

He was speaking at the 'Insead Policy Breakfast' of the series that engages leaders from around the GCC to debate government policy and initiatives.

Olav Wicken, professor at The Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture at the University of Oslo spoke about Norway’s experience in economic diversification and the lessons the GCC can take when implementing such plans.

Norway, the professor said, had successfully diversified its economy away from hydrocarbons by focusing on knowledge based initiatives.

'Norway today is a diverse oil economy with a number of strong export sectors and the oil and gas sector has been an important driving force in this process. High investment levels and demand has promoted expansion in research institutions, technology industries, and business services,' Prof Wicken stated.

'Many knowledge intensive industries have become new export sectors. The new knowledge intensive industries sectors are today a platform for the development of new export industries, independent of oil. This allows Norway to be less dependent on oil income in the future,' he added.

The experts at the seminar held discussions on following topics:
*How natural resources can be leveraged into sustainable benefits for economy and society
*How the political system can be used to establish laws and regulations to encourage foreign companies to involve local institutions and universities in the production of natural resources, particularly in the oil sector
*How Norway has experienced extraordinary long-term growth and development as a resource based economy and what the GCC can learn from its experience and
*What has distinguished Norway’s development from those countries which have been struck by the ‘resource dependency’

The policy breakfasts are a series of early morning seminars that focus on current policy issues through the lenses of academics and practitioners in industry and government. The series is aimed at professionals concerned with government policy.

The Insead Innovation and Policy Initiative (IIPI) was set up in April 2010 at the Abu Dhabi campus to work with governments across the Middle East region on innovation policy related issues.

Its mission is to become a leading resource and knowledge hub on the role of government in fostering innovative activities in businesses and the wider community.-TradeArabia News Service