Arab Economic Summit Opens in Egypt Amidst Revolts Due to High Unemployment, Rising Prices, Corruption

Arab economic summit opens in Egypt to speed up economic integration

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Jan. 19, 2011 (Xinhua) --

Arab leaders gathered Wednesday in Egypt's Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh for the second Arab Economic, Development and Social Summit, which is set to tackle economic challenges facing the Arab world and speed up regional economic integration.

Addressing the opening session, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged the summit to reach a common Arab vision to mitigate the repercussions of the global challenges and assess the progress of the implementation of resolutions taken at the first summit in Kuwait in 2009 and make new proposals for their enforcement.

This summit will continue to push forward the inter-Arab cooperation in upgrading infrastructure, including pan-Arab network of railway, maritime transport, grid and communications and support the development of private sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.

Implementation of these projects of development, declared in the resolutions of the Kuwait summit, has draw criticism for not delivering on its promises in the past two years, partly due to the lasting impact of the global financial crisis on the Arab region.

AL Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in his speech that Arab countries should learn developing experiences from world leading economies through the cooperation forums set up between Arab countries and China, Japan, India and South American countries and attract more foreign investment for Arab small and medium-sized enterprises.

The summit comes when economic concerns are turning into political crisis in some Arab countries, including Tunisia, Jordan and Algeria, where protests cropped up over high unemployment, rising prices and rampant corruption.

Both Mubarak and Helen Clark, head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), stressed in their speech that high rate of unemployment is one of the most pressing development challenges in the region.

"Employment-intensive and inclusive growth is needed to achieve lasting routes out of poverty and food insecurity, and to provide decent and productive work for the swelling ranks of young people entering the job market," said Clark.

The summit is expected to crystallize the implementation mechanism of a proposed two-billion-dollar fund to support small and medium-sized projects in all Arab countries to help improve employment of young people.

Ten heads of state, together with chiefs of governments and high level representatives of other member states of the Arab League, attended the opening ceremony.

Editor: Xiong Tong

Arab leaders meet on economy, poverty in the wake of Tunisian crisis

As the region feels the aftershocks of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution, Arab world leaders gather in Egypt on Wednesday to discuss trade and development including a $2 billion fund to finance small and medium businesses.

By News Wires (text)  

France 24, January 19, 2011, AP -

Wary of the unrest in Tunisia, Arab leaders are expected Wednesday to commit to a proposed $2 billion program to boost faltering economies that have propelled crowds into the streets to protest high unemployment, rising prices and rampant corruption.

The pledge was made in a document obtained by The Associated Press that is to be adopted by the economic summit opening Wednesday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

TUNISIA 'Tunisia will be a spark provoking similar revolts'

This is “a commitment to provide job opportunities for Arab young people in order to empower them to participate fully in their societies,” stated the document, labeled as the summit’s final statement.

The idea of the fund was first suggested by Kuwait during the economic summit in the Gulf emirate in 2009 but has been slow to get off the ground like many Arab League initiatives requiring members to pledge money.

Arab diplomats said oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have promised to pay $500 million each and, after the economic-related unrest in Tunisia, additional pledges are pouring in.

Thamer al-Anni, an Arab League official, said some $298 million in additional pledges were made by 11 other member states Tuesday.

He said a special fund would be set up within weeks, after a two-year wait to operate as a bank that provides short- and medium-term loans to young Arabs who want to start their own small enterprises.

“This will be for businesses with a small capital around $20,000-$50,000,” he told AP.

He said priority will be given to the less developed countries such as Djibouti, Sudan and Yemen.

Weeks of protests over corruption and political repression forced Tunisia’s longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country Friday to Saudi Arabia.

Protests renewed on Tuesday after Tunisia’s main trade unions and other opposition groups rejected a new government to replace Ben Ali’s appointed Cabinet.

Turmoil in Tunisia, triggered by political repression, rising unemployment and skyrocketing food prices has cast a shadow over the summit, which originally was meant to be a platform to discuss trade, business and investment.

“All these projects will increase employment and achieve stability in the Arab societies,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, responding to a question about the impact of the Tunisian situation on the region.

The unrest started after a 26-year-old unemployed man in Tunisia set himself on fire last month in protest. The incident sparked a tidal wave of protests that eventually toppled Ben Ali.

On Tuesday, a 25-year-old unemployed Egyptian man died after setting himself on fire on the roof of his home in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria hours. Hours earlier, two Egyptian men, also inspired by events in Tunisia, attempted to set themselves on fire in downtown Cairo. A day earlier, another man burned himself in front of parliament also in protest of the government.

On Monday, a Mauritanian man reportedly unhappy with the government torched himself in his car outside an official building in the capital, Nouakchott.

In Algeria, there have been seven cases of people attempting to set themselves on fire, including one man who died Saturday from his burns.

Thousands have demonstrated in Jordan, Egypt, Oman, Libya and Yemen recently over the economic situation, some explicitly in solidarity with the Tunisians.

In Sudan, police on Monday arrested Islamic leader Hassan Turabi after he spoke out against President Omar al-Bashir’s government and called for a popular revolt similar to the one in Tunisia that toppled Ben Ali.

Oil-rich nations in the Gulf that are ruled by autocratic families are taking precautions.

Kuwaiti ruler Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah decreed Monday that free food rations be given to all Kuwaitis at a cost of $818 million.

He also ordered the government to give every Kuwaiti citizen a grant of some $4,000.

Saudi King Abdullah also promised to increase government spending in the coming years. He told a Kuwaiti newspaper Monday that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil supplier, plans to spend $68 billion next year on projects to reduce unemployment and spur growth.