LOC17:45
14:45 GMT
KUWAIT, Jan 17 (KUNA) -- Economists participating in the second session of the Arab Economic Summit's "Private Sector and Civil Society Forum," dedicated to commerce and investment, called Saturday for removing all obstacles facing the movement of products, people, finances and services among the Arab states.
Egyptian Minister of Commerce and Industry Rasheed Mohammad Rasheed said that inter-Arab trade accounted for 10-15 percent of the total volume of Arab commerce, while the volume of Arab investments in Arab countries was at 25 percent.
He said many factors hindered Arab cooperation from achieving their goals, namely lack of true political will and granting economic issues less attention in view of political factors.
Moreover, he said the Arab arena lacked in main partners, saying that today there were hundreds of Arab companies that were operating at a regional level and investing in other Arab countries.
On his part, Secretary General of the Arab League's Arab Economy Unit, Ahmad Al-Guwaili, said the Arab region suffered from wars and conflicts that obstructed joint Arab action, underscoring the importance of moving on toward comprehensive economic integration.
He noted that the summit would be discussing for the first time the liberalization of services in the Arab world.
Should these obstacles be removed, he said, the volume of inter-Arab trade would rise, but 50 percent of Arab exports were capital products and there was no Arab alternative for them.
What is needed is increasing the volume of Arab production and diversifying it, he said.
Meanwhile, MENA Director of the Social and Economic Group Ritva Reinikka said the financial crisis that the world was going through proved that reforming the investment climate was the key, adding that World Bank studies showed that the cost of non-customs barriers was at 11 percent of the volume of trade in the region.
The World Bank is trying to cut down on bureaucracy in Arab government bodies and to simplify government procedures in order to facilitate the passage of goods among Arab states.
She said Arab companies benefited greatly from the great Arab free trade zone agreement.
As for Chairman of the Tunisian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Al-Hadi Al-Jilani, he said experience had proven that Arab businessmen contributed to boosting their countries' economies when the circumstances allowed this.
The private sector, he said, was the path to development of Arab economy. (end) kt KUNA 171745 Jan 09NNNN