The speaker's objective was to convey his personal vision of how to conduct business in the Arab world and why specifically there. To this end, the presentation's agenda was based on four points: the prevailing view of the Arab world, where common errors lie in approach, how business is conducted in the Arab world, and why it is essential to focus on that region. Baihas Baghdadi asserted that, in his view, Spain's natural market is not in Latin America, as is generally assumed, but rather in the southern Mediterranean, "which is right around the corner, and whose countries have experienced far fewer ups and downs than South America." Furthermore, the speaker sought to dispel certain myths, such as that of insecurity: "The fundamentalism so often discussed in the media is not palpable on the streets." Baihas Baghdadi emphasized that Arabs like to feel a sense of trust with their negotiating partners and pointed out that "you should try to avoid discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with an Arab, because you don't know where they stand and you're bound to lose." He also commented that in business with Arabs, certain topics must be avoided, such as the veil, Islam, etc. Finally, the speaker reviewed the situation in the countries of the region: "Syria is making a great effort toward opening up, Lebanon is trying to improve its accounts, Egypt is improving tremendously… these are frankly attractive countries, countries that today represent 5% of the world's population," he concluded.
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