patients. kuwaitis like american doctors hospitals, medical equipment and technology and medicine and given those preferences, i think u.s. company also have a natural competitive advantage in bidding on health expansion contracts. in the field of i.t. and te telecommunications. they have the level of tech natural expertise that they wrooir as they aim to grow their infrastructure. kuwait's development needs will require new technologies for a use in variety of fields from government, education and health care industry. one potential partner for the u.s. in u.s. and i.t. they have been put together to oversee the upgrade to the infrastructure and is embarked on a plan to install a comprehensive fiber optics network over the next five year. phase one of the plan was just completed and the tendering

process is entering the second phase as the ministry looks for qualified firms to be able to advice and supervise the technical design and implementation of this massive project. more broadly, they're exploring ways to expand technology and improve goift efficiency and expanding services for kuwaiti residents like data security, streamlining paper woerk for different government agencies and increasing the number of public services available online. so in summation, the bilateral commercial relationship will continue to form a part of our bilateral relationship with kuwait, as governments and people. at the ambassador you can count on us to be there. i encourage you to travel to kuwait and when you do, contact us through the foreign khmer shall service or my office with request for innovative assistance that you may have. i hope you will return to kuwait often. if you haven't been, i encourage you to visit and take advantage

of the new opportunities to support kuwait's growing as well as in the hydrocarbons and defense >> thank you very much. each of you, the first question that actually came in from the audience was for you, ambassador sm has to do with alternative energy but a very particular kind, nuclear. and the question really is -- where is stho saudi arabia on ? >> yes, yes, no. k care was given the stood up about a year ago. the king abdullah center for atomic and recognize o renewable energy, giving the charter to come up with a plan form or long-term energy plan for saudi arabia. k care only has about 15

employees in it so they mostly contracted out to a whole host of other people to look at it. they're proceeding and i think wisely, to canvas the globe for the best technologies for wind, solar and nuclear. so in the case of nuclear, they have signed mous with us, the brits, the french, the south koreans, the chinese and the russians. and they have to understand the technology available and then to identify the technologies that would be most appropriate for saudi arabia. so, no, they don't have a plan yet but they're headed in that direction and i think you'll probably see a balanced plan. that will focus, first, on solar. saudi arabia wants to become an energy country, not a petroleum

country. and the university has been given the technical challenge with coming up with a plan to generate the equivalent of 8 million barrels a day in electricity from solar power. and saudi arabia has sun and they have a lot of space. so they'll be getting sales off like a printing plant, not worried so much about that, they're trying to solve the technical issue of the transportation of electricity and if they can do that, they're going to make money off of solar in three ways. they'll put the kwif lentd of a million or a million navy barrelling back into the market and take the excess and sell it to their brothers in the region because they're focused on a gcc grid. and third, the saudis do not export natural gas. they use that as feed stocks or

as energy advantage. they never use the word "subsidy" of course. you can start putting natural gas in the opened market so these guys are going to make money three ways off of this. wind is a bit of a problem because the theory works good but the pitting of for wind is a problem with wind they haven't been able to overcome. nuclear, they seem committed to moving in that direction and we're working diligently on a government-to-government solution. if we're able to proceed ahead with that you'll see them identifying some tech nothintec. the reality is that they're singularly focused on the small

module. so they are moving in that direction. a little longer answer is, a plan is coming together. it's not there but i need to make sure that american companies are there because i think there will be a huge opportunity for us. >> the second question is really directed to any of the panelists. i might ask ambassador corbin to address it first because it has to do with advice on how to engage with gcc countries on private equity funds and sovereign funds. certainly, i've had some experience with such entities in the ua. if you might offer a few words on that and then i'd invite other panelists whose countries do is have either sovereign investment funds or very active private equity funds to offer their comments as well.

>> i'd say this. this is an area where obviously the emirates have a great interest in this. there was the 2008 crash in dubaiffect abu da beand they are moving forward with investments and they are, again, opened for business and there were arab spring concerns which they've addressed now and they are moving forward and i think the your all message is that the pause that we saw last year is pretty much over but there will be concerns as they go forward and there's certainly focused on what happened in dubai and they're not going to spread their money the way they used to, because of the model of dubai. but there may be ambassador who have more -- this is not an area that's something that we get into extensively so i don't know

if the other ambassador have things to same about that. >> others? >> please. >> well, the qatar is now focused more on sovereign wealth funds and the types of investments they can do, they're not as old as the ones in kuwait or in abu dhabi or as large. they're making up in a short time because of the tremendous wealth they're accrued from the l & g they're exporting. they're looking for investments overseas. a lot of it looking to europe, to the east, some in the united kinds of things where they can pick up the kinds of industries or properties that are a little distressed and figuring out how they can turn them around and buck them up. you see a lot of their buying of

greek debt and companies luxemberg and they had a projec they've made a big -- it's a $700 million project so they've taken a big step into the u.s. market with this project so we'll see how it goes. i think it has whetted their. tide for more projects. it's just finding the right fit. >> others? >> i would just add, and echo what matt said before. go to the website and connect. i have a luxury of having a very robust foreign commercial service in rihadh and around there and as companies come in, i'm amazed that american d i say, just go on the ometimes website. and i would ask you to encourage the american companies, those of

you in the business area, go to the website and it takes you right to fcs and rear in the business of connecting you. our fcs over the last year has american companies with other counterparts in saudi arabia. so it's something they do for a living so ask them not to be shy. just contact us and we'll help you. >> on the question of the investment funds kuwait has one of the oldest best managed of the sovereign investment funds in the region. it's notable for its success. it does -- it follows a very conservative investment strategy. it works very closely with a number of well-known investment banks, not just in the u.s. and europe but around the world. it diversifies well and it's done very well. i'm not sure i'd advise -- they are probably not too open to approaches from potential consultants or advisers.

on the other hand, there are a number of private equity funds. a lot of those were very, very highly leveraged. some were wiped out in the 2008-2009 period but kuwait still has a lot of private wealth and as those begin to rebuild i'm sure the u.s. is still regarded as the preferred destination for investment. . >> thank you. >> there's a general question about unemployment and youth unemployment. ambassador smith, it's addressed to you but i think it has wider applicability and i earn courage any ambassador to gist of the q many of the job there is the saudi private sector are occupied by foreign labor, skilled and unskilled. at the same time, there's a vt saudi arabia. and so the questioner asks -- do young saudis object to working

in jobs that young americans or others might take? how real is the problem of youth unemployment? i assume this is as it's perceived, as a political and economic problem in saudi arabia. so i'm sure it would be great to have your reflections on it and i think there's variations on this theme that probably play out in all the countries that these ambassador represent. >> i think the youth unemployment problem today is overstated. the challenge in a generation understated. the and certainly, within the center of the country, there is this tendency to not migrate to jobs that may have someone else do. not as true in the eastern

province or in the -- they are begging me to get american companies to get their factories there. they want to work. the refinery in uando, exxonmobil facility, 92% of the workforce is saudi. blue core lar and white c to sa. the challenge in saudi arabia is a bloated publicand saudis repr public sector and about 10% of the private sector. and the reality of a situation like that is the becomes the biggest obstacle towards developing the private sector and entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises. that really is the challenge with diversifying the economy. and they're tackling it bubba you look at the saudi issue

today, and you i mean, it's good that they're targeting jobs and the expectation is that you go get a job. but when you target third country nationals as your problem, you've essentially identified the solution as similar to if we were going to solve the california unemployment probably sending all the mexicans gak so there's more jobs to pick strawberries for americans. that's not going to solve your problem. you've got to create new industry and new enterprises. it's all about technology creation and new industry. with this hugely educated young generation coming of age, that you bring in at entry level management and know they have a career to develop over time. that's really the answer. and you got to really focus on the private sector to do that. and an entrepreneurs and we're

certainly helping with that. it will be a challenge for that transformation. >> are there versions of this youth unemployment problem that play out in other countries that you've accredited and would any of you like to comment on that? >> i'll add for the uae, they have abundant opportunities. dynamic leadership and the prime example of this is the employment of women and finding ways of getting women into the workforce. they realize if they're going to do defense, airlines, hospitals, peaceful mike lar energy with a million population they need to use all their issues. but i think the leadership is really focused on youth and i think there's a positive story going on in the uae in general. >> i think there's somewhat of an element and correlation in oman. they are a minority country in the sense that the majority of resident there is are omanis.

so you do still have much of the economy run by omanis at our embassy. the majority of them are omanis but the per capita income is $20,000 a year. when you have $100,000 a year per capita, your need to enter the workforce at the jobs typically available are much less so that's an element that plays a role in what the expectations are and in what the needs are. i think in our country the omanis are doing a very good job of training and identifies where employment can be made available and then training omanis to take that employment. >> susan? >> it's a little bit different in qatar in the sense that it's a small, native qatary population. the country is 1.8 million, but of that, 250,000 are qatarry. women and then enter into the

workforce, increasingly women, because they're very educated. the interesting thing is that good-skilled qatarrys can practically ask for their job. and almost ask for their price. and so, because there's so much expansion and not enough qatarrys that are skilled in these jobs, there are opportunities for nonqatarrys in the workforce as a skilled level and a high-paying level and you're not taking jobs from them. there's too much work to go around and local population can't fill the jobs, so it's a very different dynamic there. >> look, one last question that really is a group question so it might be a good one to end on. the first part of this question, i'm going to have to ask you. you'll have to address, is this a true perception? and if so, what should be done about it? the questioner asks -- who sine so much more successful than u.s. businesses in your

countries? is it true? if so, what's the problem? with corbin. >> i'd say it's not the europeans that we need to worry about. it's the turks, chinese and indians that we need to worry about. the europeans were competitive and the french and british are very active with busy business councils. they're very competitive and they're prepared to go overseas in a way we're only seeing u.s. europeans we need to worry about. i think it's the other countries and we need to be more aggressive and highlight the fact that we have innovation. an example of food. look at 80% of emrites have some form of diabetes. the fact that we have healthy food and diet-conscious products. delmonte just won all sorts of awards. that's because we do things our competitors aren't doing. same thing in health care and other areas where we have a real advantage. i think that's what we have to

take on. i don't think it's the europeans. i think it's the other countries that i mentioned that are the problem. >> different view? same view? >> no, i hear this all the time. they say that sarkozy comes in so they win all the contracts. that's whining. if you follow the money, it takes you rihadh. the economy is twice the size of innovative economy in the region. they're 51,000 saudis going to school in the united states today. that's their choice. they want to come here for a reason. and they want to connect with american businessmen and women. we came home after 9/11 and left a -- we were often companied at rihadh for five and a half years. my wife, janet, was the first spouse to come back in five and a half years.

well, guess what? the world doesn't like that. whoit? the south koreans and the chinese. and if you want it cheap, go to china. here is the problem. china wants to be the world's manufacturer, and they're doing an exceptionally good job at that. what is saudi ar rake by's problem? jobs. if you want to develop your own infrastructure, you're not going to get that from the the south koreans. you will get it from americans. so i repeatedly talked to american businessmen about the value propio if they ever let a competition result in a price competition with the chinese, they are going to lose. if they can present a value proposition that comes with the education and training package where you're going the create an entity that the saudis can run

over time and creigh at an industry there where you're creating a job here as you're creating one in saudi arabia, you've got a winning combination. the american business and industry is very competitive because of that value proposition. >> others? >> i do hear this perception and maybe it's sometimes fed by the fact that european governments are generally follow a very aggressive policy of supporting commercial travel and visits and often senior government officials from european country also be accompanied by large business delegations when they travel. we might look at doing more of that. i certainly don't see that bearing out in the trade figures. at the end of the day it comes down to what's the type of product? the areas i touched on, what i think they have in common when it's education and health care and that type of infrastructure, this is where, at least in

kuwait, they want the u.s. involved. that's where -- this is where it's touching my life. this is where the value is. this is what i want the best of. they turn to the u.s. for that. >> look, don told us we're on a tight schedule. i think we need to close. before we do that, i want to thank all of you for your insights and your service. [ applause ] . >> thank you, ambassador larson. i just want to really thank all the ambassadors today. i'm an old guy, and when i started kicking around in the middle east back in lincoln's second term, the last place you would visit was the american embassy where no one knew anything about what was going on commercially and anything you said was going to go into cable and get shrugged to 19,000 recipients in 45 countries.

so as we saw, it was a one-way street. we gave information and we got pain. ly little in return and certainly no great commercial wisdom. i can remember back when -- i'm having a senior moment -- the wonderful secretary of state who just died recently larry eagle berger. in many ways i credit him. he said we've got to help our american companies. i was at das over at commerce and skeptical, but larry made me a convert. it's extraordinary today. i don't think there's a better cadre of informed ambassadors that any country has than ours. not only informed about what's going on commercially, but

understand what's going on commercially. azs ambassador smith says, the value proposition, understanding that and how to create business. on behalf of all of news the room, i want to salute you guys. thank you very much for your service and i hope you can come back and we do this again next year. thank you. god bless. [ applause ] .

krrksz span's road to the white house coverage begins live at 7:00 eastern. we'll have speeches by the republican presidential candidates from their primary night headquarters and the results. you can join in the conversation by phone and on face bach as well as follow us on twitter. british prime minister david cameron is in the u.s. this week and he and president obama are in dayton, ohio, this afternoon to watch an ncaa basketball game. they head back to washington tonight. and tomorrow president obama hosts prime minister cameron at an official dinner at the white house.

c-span.org will also stream all of the guest arrivals. the obama administration yesterday blocked a new texas law requiring voters to show a government-issued photo i.d. at the polls. she he spoke to a reporter for more on the story. >> the justice department monday blocked texas from enforcing its new voter i.d. law. gary shar covers the statehouse and state politics for the houston chronicle and san antonio express news. the ruling seemed to focus on the large number of registered voters in texas that don't have driver's licenses. how difficult would bit for them to get those alternative i.d.s? >> it all depends on where they live. there are 81 counties in texas that have no department of public safety driver's license offices. so if you are living in some of

these remote areas and you have no transportation, it's going to be very hard to travel to another county that might be 100 mile or 125-mile round trip. or in the metro areas, houston or san antonio, for example, there might not be a dps driver's license in your neighborhood, and it might require ten or -m driver's lice the complaint right now in texas is that the waiting lines to renew a driver's license might be two hours long. and so it will be difficult for some people. >> the texas primary is just weeks away, april 3rd. what does this ruling mean to voters in texas? no i.d. needed?

>> actually, the primary got changed to -- it's now scheduled for may 29th because of redistricting fights. that date is scheduled. we don't know if it's going to change again. but whether it's in may or june or july, it's highly unlikely that this voter i.d. conflict will be resolved because now it goes to a three-judge panel in washington, d.c., and this case will start from scratch before those three judges which means that it probably will take months for the parties to develop the evidence and their case. >> texas governor pearly called the department of justice ruling a, quote, pervasive federal overreach. certainly the state must have been prepared for a court battle on this all along. >> yes. when the department of justice did not pre clear a voting i.d.

bill in south carolina, that influenced the state attorney general to file suit in washington to get the ball rolling. yes, they anticipated this. >> gary scharrer is with the "houston chronicle," you can read his reporting at kron.com. thank you for the update. >> thank you. online at c-span's facebook page, we're asking if you're for or against the voter i.d. law. the poll is nearly tied with 175 voting for and 188 against. now is your chance to weigh in. go to facebook.com/cspan to cast your vote. >> congratulations to all this year's winners of c-span's student cam video