São Paulo – The Arab countries need to create an economic environment that is appropriate to trade, allowing for the development of fundamental variables for the region, like job generation, especially for women and younger populations. This is the point of view of Pascal Lamy, the director general at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), regarding the lack of jobs in the Arab world. Lamy made an address on Tuesday (24), at a discussion panel at the International Trade Centre, in Doha, Qatar.
"It is an unfortunate reality that the Arab states lag behind most other regions in creating full, productive and decent employment, particularly for women and youth,” said Lamy. "There is an urgency to promote entrepreneurship and business in the Arab region. As in most developing countries, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can play an important role in contributing to job creation and consequently to development at large," he said.
On pointing out the importance of small and medium companies for generation of jobs, Lamy pointed out that these businesses represent 90% of companies around the world, generating between 40% and 80% of job opportunities, as well as contributing to a significant part of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in their countries. According to the director general at the WTO, these companies are still facing many obstacles in the Arab world.
"Opening frontiers, reducing trade and tariff barriers and increasing the transparency of procedures for simplification of trade, all of this provides small and medium companies the opportunity to add new markets and become more competitive,” he said.
Lamy also pointed out the failures in trade integration in the region. "In the case of the Arab countries, trade integration has not gone far, despite the deep cuts in tariffs. This is largely due to trade impediments, including non-tariff barriers that present great obstacles to explore opportunities offered in existing trade agreements.”
The director general at the WTO also compared trade between the countries in the Arab League and its trade with other blocs. "In fact, the share of total trade which takes place inside the League of Arab States amounts to merely 11%, and thus represents only a fraction of the trade conducted with the 27 European Union member states."
Lamy recalled that 27% of the active population of the Arab world is unemployed, and that 60% are youths. "Urgent measures must be taken to remove trade impediments affecting regional trade. This will help unleash the potential of youth entrepreneurship and create jobs for an increasing number of highly skilled young people.”
Among the main measures to be taken, Lamy pointed out the private sectors need to lead the process for growth of regional trade, the need for governments to supply a structure for the private sector to lead, and for significant participation of trade in the development policies of countries.
"Seeing the relationship between trade and employment and institutionalizing this in national and regional dialogues will help to ensure that the two areas are mutually supportive,” he finished off.
*Translated by Mark Ament
