Press release

12 Nov 2008

Beirut

Executive Secretary Proposes Steps to Empower Private Sector

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UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary, Bader Omar AlDafa today tackled the participation of the private sector in the regional economies, the solutions to the challenges this sector faces and the role of UN-ESCWA in helping member countries strengthen it. These issues were highlighted in AlDafa's address to the "Arab Economic Integration from the Private Sector's Perspective" forum. The two-day meeting (11-12 November) discussed many issues, mainly focusing on legislation, policies, and procedures needed to remove obstacles facing Arab economic integration and creating an enabling environment to develop the Arab private sector, which would assume its developmental and social role on the national and regional levels. The meeting was organized by Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries, and held in Kuwait City. "There are several successful examples of private sector participation in the economies of the region. However, the sector remains far from handling the key role we hope it could take on in the economies of Arab countries. Enabling this sector and empowering it necessarily goes through legal, institutional, and organizational reforms. For its part, the private sector should suggest new and creative alternatives learned from successful experiences and should assume an effective role in the productive and service sectors", AlDafa said. The United Nations in general and UN-ESCWA in particular can take on a vital role in assisting member countries on this level. The Regional Commission works on "strengthening cooperation with private sector institutions and trade chambers to benefit of their support in implementing new and creative projects, drafting analytical studies and organizing capacity-building workshops; transmitting expertise, experiences, and best practices from European and Asian countries, and looking into adapting and implementing them in the Arab region; examining varying alternatives for private sector participation in production and service sectors, and ways to benefit of its expertise and flexibility; drafting studies on the latest privates sector developments and achievements worldwide and ways to benefit of them regionally; and training civil servants on updating and modernizing laws and procedures (in Iraq, UN-ESCWA trained 4,200 civil servants in different fields)".
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