The Arab Economic Summit in Riyadh has a chance to redress political-economic imbalances and indicate that better politics are based on better economies.
The recent experience in the Arab world is proving this point.
The final communique of the last Arab economic summit held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, two years ago, failed to mention a word about Tunisia, a fellow member country, that was going through a political, economic and social turmoil that eventually led to a radical change, which later inspired nearby Egypt. Hosni Mubarak, who was president then, did not get the message and had to pay the price himself as he too was being forced to leave office.
In his opening speech, then Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa was able to see the link between economy and the brewing Arab Spring.
“What is happening in Tunisia in terms of a revolution is not an issue far from the issues of this summit, which is economic and social development,” he told the meeting adding that the Arab citizen has entered of anger that is unprecedented.
Two years after the Arab Spring had swept the region bringing in new changes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen and Syria is undergoing a difficult, bloody revolution. But the same old issues of economy are still relevant even with new faces and parties running these countries.
Again in Mousa’s words, “I’m certain that achieving full development that is tangible to the Arab citizen will relieve our societies of these challenges.”
Officially, there is an ambitious agenda before the summit that covers a range of topics and issues including food security, debating a strategy on renewable energy up to 2030 and improves all forms of communication from Internet to rail and electricity connections.
That is typical of summits, where the big players are governments — concerned usually with macro economies and infrastructure projects, while the pressing issue was and continues to be meeting people’s aspirations.
For instance and according to UN statistics, more than 50 million people will enter the labor market looking for jobs in the next 10 years.
That is an area where governments can’t really make much of a difference and it is the private sector, which should be the engine leading the Arab economy in these areas of development, growth, provide jobs and manage services in an efficient, cost effective way.
Yet the importance of governments rests on their role being the referee in a political and economic game in each country making policies and, more importantly, ensure law and order that eventually It is easy to talk about Arab problems and Arab solutions, and in fact there are issues of general nature that needs general solutions. But in reality each country or may be some countries that could be grouped together at best could be dealt with in a separate way.
Again it is the political set-up that determines the activities in the economic field.
No Arab political order can decide or engage in the economic issues of each individual country.
The changes taking place in Tunisia and Egypt are bringing the economy back to the fore. Some reports suggest that even salary payments to government employees in Tunisia was being questioned. In Egypt, meanwhile, the expected loan from the International Monetary Fund is still being debated at a time when the country’s credit ratings are down and economic problems are becoming more complicated.
The two countries are plagued with political instability that elections did little to quell, if not fuel.
And that brings the issue of legitimacy, which exceeds elections and the ballot box. Governance based on general acceptance by the people is a long way to go, but it is the right route to political stability and economic progress.
It has long been stated that the Arab world owns the ingredients for an economic integration where some countries have surplus capital, others are blessed with natural resources while a third group is known for its wealth of human resources.
Bringing all these together is a win-win situation for everyone. But making a breakthrough in bringing all these together has proven to be elusive so far despite calls and attempts by various summits and conferences.
That brings the discussion to the area of politics where limitations and barriers are having their impact.
The possible route to take is to rest the bet on the private sector, which at least has the courage to take risks.
After all in today’s world risk is all over and Arab governments can do well by taking more concrete measures to encourage the Arab private sector do more to the Arab population.
Betting more on the private sector
