A call to liberalize inter Arab trade services

A report by the Arab banks federation has called to enroll the issue of liberalizing inter- Arab financial services in the agenda of the first Arab economic conference due to be held in Cairo in December this year especially after 7 Arab states agreed the principle of liberalizing the services.

The report proposed to start liberalizing the services pertaining to main areas especially transport, tourism and consultations and expected this step to lead, in the context of the free Arab trade zone agreement to further revival in inter- Arab trade exchange.

In its report, the federation of the Arab banks warned against the consequences hasty merging in the system of electronic banking without any prior study to this matter, stressing that the un- guaranteed risks of such an operation would inflict heavy damages and losses to the Arab banking sector, due to the yet still very simple steps so far taken by the Arab banks concerning the organizational structure of their banks. The report noted that the merits of electronic banking are numerous, however, their losses are great if good preparedness is not ensured.

The report revealed that the federation intends to revive two projects: Founding a joint Arab bank at a capital of $ 500 million and a holding company on tourism at a capital of $ 500 million as well as establishing a specialized and developed Arab banking networking.