Arab industry ministers for an Arab industrial development strategy

At their final meeting concluded in Amman yesterday, the Arab Ministers of Industry proposed the endorsement of an Arab strategy for industrial development.

In their recommendations which are to be submitted to the next Arab summit which is scheduled to be held in Bahrain next March, they called for that strategy to be based on coordination among the Arab states which entered the modernization process in sphere of industry.

Syria's Minister of Industry Issam Zaim, underlined the necessity for the Arab states to be committed to the policy of the liberating trade exchange among the Arab states and to remove all obstacles and to expand the market.

In a statement on the sidelines of meetings of the Arab Ministers of Industry, he indicated that dialogue between Syria and Jordan is continuing with the aim of reaching full liberation of exchange between the two states, and that the decision of establishing joint free trade zone between the two states has had its effect on the industries of the two states in general and on the Jordanian industry in particular.

He praised the importance of he initiative taken by the Arab Ministers of Industry to adopt the free trade principle on the basis of reducing customs duties at a rate of 10 percent annually which Syria was among the first to apply it as such with Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan.