Qatar Participates in Senior Officials Meeting of the Economic and Social Council in Arab League

Cairo, September 05 (QNA) - The Economic and Social Council of the Arab League held a meeting today at the level of senior officials and with the participation of representatives of Arab countries and general managers of Arab joint economic and financial institutions at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League to prepare draft resolutions in the economic and social fields, which will be presented to the Council at its ministerial session on Thursday. The State of Qatar participated in the meeting with a delegation from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. The Head of the Economic Relations Department at the Iraqi Ministry of Commerce and Chairman of the meeting Adel Khudair Masoudi, said in his speech that the means of enhancing economic cooperation between the Arab countries will be discussed through removing obstacles facing the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, and the need to work to raise the volume of intra-Arab trade, especially as the Arab region has many components like the major economic countries in the world. Masoudi said that the economic and social files represent a major focus of the Arab summits of economic and social development, pointing out that the agenda includes draft resolutions that were submitted to the ministerial session of the Economic and Social Council at its ministerial session tomorrow, chaired by Iraq to consider their adoption. For his part, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs at the Arab League Kamal Hassan Ali, told reporters at the end of the meeting that the meeting of the Council today at the level of senior officials discussed several topics of joint Arab economic and social work, particularly the report of the Secretary-General of the Arab League, follow-up to the implementation of the resolutions of the 101st session of the Economic and Social Council and the activities of the Economic and Social sector of the Inter-sessional Secretariat of the League 101 and 102 and the actions taken to implement the Council's decisions thereon. He pointed out that the dispute resolution mechanism among the Arab countries was discussed, which is an old mechanism that has been proven that it has some shortcomings, and the Arab League General Secretariat has been mandated to review the regulation of this mechanism by a specialized legal experts committee to consider this mechanism to settle disputes between the Arab countries. He pointed out that the Council discussed cooperation between the Arab League and United Nations systems in the economic and social aspects, the requirements for the completion of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, the preparations of the Arab Customs Union and its technical committees, and investment in the Arab countries. He also presented to the Economic and Social Council a draft Arab Charter for the Development of the Small and Medium Enterprises sector and the amendment of the Arab Water Council. The Council also discussed the amendment of the Arab ICT Organization (AICTO) and topics related to the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development and the periodic economic issues. Hassan Ali also said that in the framework of the development of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, it was agreed to add new annexes to the agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary issues, technical restrictions on trade and matters of trade facilitation and intellectual property as these were new issues that did not exist during the signing of this agreement. He pointed out that a memorandum of understanding will be signed on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting tomorrow between the General Secretariat of the Arab League and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation of the Islamic Development Bank, pointing out that the CEO of the corporation will address the Economic and Social Council at the ministerial level. He pointed out that a committee of Arab legal experts was formed to deal with the activation of the investment agreement in the Arab countries and to prepare a new draft law on investment in light of the comments received from the Arab countries on the Unified Agreement for the Investment of Arab Capital in the Arab States. He pointed out that an Arab charter for the development of the SME sector has been studied because of its important role in the economies of the Arab countries, which contributes to the employment of young people, pointing out that this draft charter was agreed upon to be submitted to the Arab Economic and Development Summit in Beirut in January 2019. (QNA)