Jordan to participate in Mena

Jordan Foreign Minister Dr Fayez al-Tarawneh has said his country will take part in the Middle East and North Africa Economic conference (Mena) to be held in Doha on November 16 with a high-level delegation.

In a statement to Amman Radio, Tarawneh added that the Jordanian cabinet would announce the formation of the delegation in the next few days. "The conference would be very fruitful as it would focus on the role of the private sector, which would attract a large number of investors and businessmen from various countries, nationalities," he said.

"The conference is not an Israeli one and the participation of Israel is like participation of any other country," he added.

Meanwhile the International Economic Forum which organizes the Doha economic conference has announced key issues on the agenda of the conference.

A Forum bulletin said one of the issues will be "preparations for the next century." Various workshops will discuss the role of governments in creating a favorable climate for trade, incentive programs to set up industries in the region, national strategies for making domestic products more competitive in world markets and economic policies needed to increase trade exchange between the region's states.

Another topic will be "future horizons of economic and monetary policies." Workshops will discuss the effects of fiscal deficits on development plans and how governments tackle them, means of increasing national income and find remedy to associated problems, means of speeding up privatization programs, effects of liberation of world trade through World Trade Organization, on banking systems in the region and effects of human resources development on the region's economies.