The declaration also announced the establishment of the Arab Development Fund with a capital of $ 2 billion to provide loans and assistance for Arab joint projects.
The declaration came at the end of the two-day economic summit which was overshadowed by a separate “Summit of Solidarity with Gaza” on Monday, during which the leaders pledged to end their differences over how to respond to Israel’s barbarous 22-day attack on Gaza that has devastated the coastal enclave and claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Palestinians, nearly half of them women and children.
The declaration called on the Palestinians to resolve their differences and slammed Israel for committing war crimes in Gaza.
On the economic front, thedeclaration gave priority to promoting inter-Arab investments and called upon member states to take the necessary steps “to uplift the living standards of Arab citizens.”
Arab states have not been spared by the global economic meltdown. Last week, Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah said Arab countries have incurred losses of as much as $ 2.5 trillion in the last four months.
On Tuesday, the Arab called for steps to accelerate the economic integration of Arab states and confront the fallout of the global financial crisis. They also passed a number of economic resolutions, including launching an Arab customs union in 2010, a pan-Arab power grid and a rail network project.
The declaration called for “adopting monetary and fiscal policies to enable Arab nations to face the consequences of the global financial crisis.”
“Despite progress made by some Arab nations, the Arab world is still facing many challenges… especially poverty, unemployment, poor inter-Arab trade and migration of Arab capital and brains,” the declaration said. The customs union will be completed in 2015 as a prelude to establishing an Arab common market in 2020, according to one resolution. Arab countries launched the Pan-Arab Free Trade Area about three years ago but it did little to boost commerce among members states, which remained at just between 10 percent and 12 percent of total Arab trade.
The summit also approved a resolution calling for measures that would halve the regional unemployment rate, which topped 14 percent last year, in the period between 2010 and 2020.
The leaders called for the implementation of an Arab program for the reduction of poverty, which exceeds 40 percent in at least seven Arab nations.
They also approved a resolution calling for improved water security, one of the most acute problems facing the Arab world, where the desert makes up 68 percent of its area..
