LOC13:32
10:32 GMT
KUWAIT, Jan 20 (KUNA) -- Kuwait ranked first among Arab states in the development of human resources, a study conducted by the World Bank (WB) between 2004 and 2008 said.
The study, distributed on the sidelines of the Arab Economic Summit, said Kuwait was followed by Bahrain, Qatar, then the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
It added that Kuwait came third in the fluctuation of the growth process on the medium and long terms after Djibouti and Lebanon, pointing out that Palestine and Iraq, which suffer from political conflicts, made the least development in human resources, which means they will not be able to achieve most of their development goals by 2015.
The study said that economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa was among the highest in the world, reaching an average of 3.7 percent per person annually and reflecting the improvement of salaries, increase of average expected ages and schooling, and the decrease of poverty, death rates, and illiteracy.
The WB said that 14 percent of the Arab world's population lacked clean drinking water and that 46 percent of Arab children were under the average weight and suffered from malnutrition.
It said that among the main characteristics of social development in Arab countries were the redistribution of salaries and the protection of local markets from international competition. (end) kt KUNA 201332 Jan 09NNNN