Arab Financial Institutions End Joint Meetings

The Arab financial institutions wound up Wednesday in Rabat their joint annual meetings with the adoption of annual reports and year 2000 programs of activity.

The governing board of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), re-elected Abdellatif Youssef Al-Hamad, as director-general for a new five-year term and elected board members, including Moroccan Abderrazzak Razik.

Syrian economy and external trade minister Mohamed Imad, who chaired the Fez Meetings, told MAP news agency AFESD is one of the major achievements of the Arab joint action. He also lauded the fund's efforts to promote an Arab free-trade area.

The AFESD governing board insisted on the need to carry on funding development projects in the Arab World, he said, adding that the Fund decided to extend financial support to the private sector in a bid to encourage its contribution to economic development.

For its part, the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) also decided to earmark new loans to Arab nations to help them maintain their macro-economic balance, Mohamed Imad said, adding that the AMF's major goal is to finance inter-Arab trade.

The meetings, attended by several Arab economy and finance ministers, discussed, inter alia, ways to enhance inter-Arab economic and financial cooperation, encourage investments flow in the region and the Arab world's relations with regional groupings, especially the European Union.

The financial institutions are the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), the Arab Organization for Investments Guarantee (AOIG), the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and the Arab Bank for Economic Development Africa (ABEDA) and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Investments (AOAI).