Joint Arab - European Chambers of Commerce meet in Damascus
The cooperative meeting of the joint Arab - European Chambers of Commerce was held in Damascus on December 15-17.
The meeting aimed at reactivating economic relations with Europe, in the frame of the Barcelona Agreement, through the promotion of investment and the creation of a center for Arab exports, the organization of delegations and seminars on investment and the creation of an Arab - European surveillance company.
Euro - Arab joint chambers cooperate with the EC in organizing symposia and studying Euro - Arab relations. Three projects are being implemented in the EC: Europartenaria, Med-enterprise, and the EC-Gulf Cooperation Council Industrial Conference.
In addition to the aforementioned, the participants noted three proposals which could be executed by the joint chambers in order to develop Euro - Arab economic and trade relations. These proposals deal with the creation of a center for Arab exports, the organization of investment symposia and the creation of the monitoring company.
They adopted the creation of a center for Arab exports, noting the importance of encouraging joint chambers to create Arab export centers as the Arab - British Chamber of Commerce recently did. The purpose of such a center would be to form an international information base on Arab and foreign companies and offer trade information to European importers.
The center would also provide opportunities for European importers to get to know Arab industries and production surpluses in industry and agriculture, to study Arab markets in order to see what could be exported and to help in finding European importers.
The center could organize specialized symposia on exports and organize visits of trade delegations to Arab countries and receptions for Arab delegations to promote Arab products, as well as organizing Arab trade fairs.
They indicated that Arab countries need foreign investment. Because many Arab investment laws are being liberalized, greater European partnership is permitted, including in management until the development of local Arab staff.
The general trend toward globalization, the liberalization of trade and the membership of many Arab countries in the World Trade Organization are important indicators of the business trends in Arab countries.
The symposia which had been organized by some Euro - Arab chambers were quite important in that sense. The colloquium on Arab - Italian Cooperation in Agricultural Mechanization organized annually in Bologna, Italy by the Arab - Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Oil Colloquium of the French - Arab Chamber of Commerce, which is now the only annual conference on oil affairs, are two successful and interesting examples.
The conferees found that the creation of a monitoring company would help the development as well as the rationalization of trade in such a was as to reduce the possibility of having disorder in standardization and also to reduce cost accounting and limit trade disputes. Joint chambers could contribute by supplying information and service on goods to be expected.