Arab economic union council session focuses on Arab fund creation

The Arab Economic Union's council held here on Wednesday its 77th session with focus on ways to carry out the Arab joint market project, draw up an Arab economic strategy and incept an Arab fund for trade, investment and development.

The fund will help increase inter-Arab trade, speed up the creation of an Arab academy of electronic activities and an Arab e-commerce company.

The council's secretary general, Ahmed Jouili, underscored the importance for Arab countries to set up a pole to compete with other international economic groupings.

He further explained that the recent events have affected Arab economic activities, resulting in a drop in foreign and domestic direct investments and low inter-Arab trade, which in turn, led to a decrease in GDP growth rate and an increase of unemployment rates.

On his part, chairman of the council's current session, Yemeni minister of industry and trade, Khaled Cheikh, stressed the Arab league's role in re-activating the Arab joint action, calling participants to step up efforts to develop Arab economic trade and materialize the Arab joint market.

Eleven Arab countries are member of the Arab economic Union's council, namely Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Sudan, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Palestine, Libya and Mauritania.