With each Arab summit, including the Baghdad Summit yesterday, a justified question is renewed: Are the economic files that are transferred from the table of an Arab summit to another, such as the joint Arab market for electricity, Arab currency, Arab free trade zone and the Arab Customs Union, are valid for discussion amid global developments and international economic blocs?
In fact, looking at these files from a pragmatic point of view and from the point of view of the direct interest of each Arab country, it guarantees actual implementation and huge opportunities to convert projects and ideas into facts and agreements on the ground.
The global economic scene is changing today with the speed of blocs, and the Arab countries, if they meet on specific and clear projects, will be a heavy bloc that is difficult to compete with, and in the Arab world all the elements of economic integration are available, as it is one of the richest regions of the world in the crude oil reserve 2020, and the area of agricultural lands in the Arab countries reached about 197 million hectares, and the total area of the natural pastures constitutes about 375.9 million hectares, while the forest area was estimated at 37.4 million hectares, and the Arab world is a large market of 361 million people, which is a qualified market to achieve economic integration, and a gross domestic product for Arab countries amounted to 3.6 trillion dollars during the year 2024.
With the ongoing developments in the region, the Arab countries still have many opportunities, such as bilateral or collective agreements under the umbrella of the League of Arab States, which guarantee planning small projects that can be implemented and be fruitful quickly.
For example, alliances can be created between Arab pharmaceutical companies to produce medicines and distribute them within the Arab market without customs duties so that the gain is dual by reducing dependence on the outside and creating a strong Arab industry that provides job opportunities and supports health security.
The Arab world includes tourist sites among the best in the world, so this can also turn into an opportunity for tourism integration that promotes Arab economies, through the issuance of a unified Arab tourist visa such as European Schengen allowing tourists to roam between several countries with one process, and make joint tourist bouncies, and promote the Arab world as one different destination instead of competing with Arab countries each other.
The private sector in the Arab region is a key partner in this integration, as it constitutes a large percentage of more than 75% of the gross domestic product of the Arab countries, which amounts to approximately 4 trillion dollars, and therefore the contribution of this sector will not be less than the limits of $ 3 trillion, as well as its great contribution to employment.
Arab economic integration has become a necessity to be dictated by the complexities of the global reality and the challenges of the future, in a world that is getting more interconnected, as economic blocs turn into motor tools that reshape the balance of global powers, increase the importance of Arab inter -trade, and their need for further growth, while working to control specifications and standards and find an integrated system for transportation and logistics in the region.
