Tony Blair to speak at Oman Economic Forum

Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair will be the keynote speaker at Oman’s Economic Forum this month. Blair, who in 2008 topped the list as the world’s highest earning public speaker, will be joined by Hamoud Sangour Al Zadjali, executive president of Central Bank of Oman and Yahya Al Jabri, chairman of the Special Economic Zone Authority. The event, at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel on April 22-23, will be the third edition of the two-day forum, and will cover a range of topics including banking and finance, SMEs and how to grow the Gulf state’s industrial sector. Blair, a Special Envoy to the Quartet on the Middle East, has established a successful speaking career since resigning as Britain’s Prime Minister in 2007. Washington Speakers Bureau in 2008 said it had a two-year waiting list to book the former Labour party leader to speak, with institutions prepared to pay up to GBP£157,000 (US$250,000) for a speech of around an hour and a half.