ABSTRACT
One of the most stimulating comments on Middle Eastern development that have appeared in recent years referred to a missing link in the economic process, namely entrepreneurship. It appeared in the 1954 issue of the Middle East Economic Papers, published by the Economic Research Institute of the American University of Beirut, in an article by Professor A. J. Meyer. We realized that by a stroke of insight Professor Meyer had focused our minds on one of the deeper secrets of thwarted progress. You cannot develop an economy unless there are the persons with vision to discover where change can occur, and who have the initiative, the
venturesomeness, and the resources to see it through. It is that kind of initiative and risk-taking blended with imaginative skill which has created the dams, the power stations, the factories, and the airlines, which kindle our hopes.
