Monday, January 17th
Arab Economic Summit started today in Sharm al-Sheikh
Sharm al-Sheikh, Jan. 17 (AKnews) - The deputy Iraqi Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Dr. Roze Nouri Shawis attended on Monday the meeting of the Economic and Social Council at the level of Ministers of Finance, Economy and Trade, which began its works today in Sharm el-Sheikh to prepare for the Arab, economic, social and developmental summit that will be held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Egypt.
The meeting discussed the projects of economic and development decisions that the joint meeting of the Permanent Representatives of the Arab League and senior officials in Arab countries reached to in order to be referred to the meeting of Arab foreign ministers which is scheduled to be held this evening in preparation for being submitted to the Arab leaders for approval.
The representative of Kuwait, minister of finance Mustafa al-Shamali, handed during the meeting the presidency of the summit to the representative of Egypt Rachid Mohammed Rachid, Minister of Trade and Industry, and they discussed the issues approved by the Kuwaiti Economic Summit held in 2009 and ways to activate them, including the initiative of Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Subah al-Ahmad al-Subah about the establishment of an Arab fund to finance small and medium private projects with a capital estimated by two billion dollars.
The ministers also discussed activating the Arab electricity interconnection projects, road link project through railway, maritime transport and linking the Internet as well as the World Bank initiative to support the infrastructure of countries in the region and to participate in financing of small and medium enterprises and investing in human resources, in addition to discussing operational steps in the Arab countries about the development goals of the third Millennium and the plan of implementing the Arab food security system and reducing unemployment and poverty.
The participants recommended at the conference supporting the steadfastness of Jerusalem and the provision of health care for the people of Gaza, and the development of education and improving the health and support the participation of the private sector in projects of joint Arab action and strengthening the role of civil society to participate in the economic, social and developmental issues.
It is said that Saudi Arabia had officially asked to hold the third economic summit, in 2013 in Riyad and there is almost unanimous approval for this request by the finance and economy ministers.
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