The Arabs have a proverb which says the ‘hasty baker will end up with raw bread’. Bread features heavily in the Arabic lifestyle — hastiness does not.

If you come to the Gulf Region expecting to do business in a hurry you’ll be disappointed. Relationships are hugely important |to Arabs as they like to know people first and do business second. Of course, that’s not to say that they are not interested in the bottom line; they are and now more than ever.

The Arabs know that following the economic downturn the rest of the world is interested in talking to them, but if you get on a plane and expect them to buy Western goods or services and be grateful — immaterial of the quality — then you are seriously deluded. There is no easy business to be made in the Gulf Region — it takes time, a lot of time and investment. Arabs are canny purchasers and this is a sophisticated market. Remember though, despite the recent difficulties of Dubai World, this is still a world of tight credit. The Middle East has cash and, right now, cash is king.

I wrote this piece while waiting for yet another meeting which was over an hour late. Patience is required. Arabs make great hosts, but unpredictable guests. Appointments are frequently late and sometimes moved. Flying in and out of any of the Gulf states |in one day for business is not |advisable.

As someone working in a professional services firm, the recent Invest NI Trade Mission in which I participated was a new experience. The mission took in Qatar, Oman and UAE (primarily Dubai). My fellow travellers were from a range of local companies, but those involved in the construction and associated industries were perhaps overly represented.

Some participants are well known in Northern Ireland business circles, such as Patton Group and Terex. Others were typical of Northern Ireland success stories that trade well abroad, but are relatively unknown at home, such as Lisburn-based PowerShield Doors Ltd.

Unsurprisingly, given the size of the hospitality sector Ulster Carpets also attended, as did the Newry-based water and sewerage treatment company, FM Environmental. Sports management and training company, MWM, and some knowledge-based firms such as I-Path Diagnostics (a Queen’s spin out company) also joined the mission, as did Queen’s University itself.

Food security is a growing phenomenon in the Gulf, hence the attendance of food companies such as Dale Farm.

Mission participants set up most of their own meetings. This can lead to long gaps in the day as business meetings can take place late into the evening and many meetings are so specific to a business that there may be no more than two meetings in each city. From an event management point of view the mission was well organised.

The pre-mission briefings are full of handy cultural tips; use the right hand for food, don’t show the soles of your feet to your guests (quite difficult to do in reality) and be patient, very, very patient. Detailed information on each country and an economic update was usefully included in the packs.

Support from both the Invest team and their logistics company, MWM, was very good. Nothing was too much trouble.

The pro-forma of the actual mission takes the form of on-|site briefings in each country, usually given at 8am by a representative of the British Embassy, |the DTI and the ubiquitous representative of a major law firm.

On a trip like this, one has to conclude that the corporate law profession is as recession proof as an undertaker’s business. To be frank, as a ‘trade mission virgin’ these briefings were tired.

There is also a pre-set-up meeting with the local British business group in whichever city one is in. These appear to be as much for the collegiality of the local ex-pat community as they are networking opportunities for participants on the mission.

As for actual business being done, yes, there is some, but the missions are as much about building contacts and confidence in the marketplace.

Trade missions have a ‘clubby’ feel to them and many of the participants are battle-hardened veterans of many overseas trips. Interestingly, businesses on the mission seem to ‘gel’ well and some even identify opportunities of mutual benefit back at home.

The Arabs have another saying that ‘wishing does not make a poor man rich’.

If, however, you are an Irish business in the current climate, neither will staying at home.

Tom Kelly is group chief |executive of the joint Northern Ireland/Saudi Arabia venture, Stakeholder International