The Regional Economic Development Working Group
This group addresses the issues of infrastructure, training and tourism
development in the region, including the West Bank and Gaza. In November
1993, the working group adopted the "Copenhagen Action Plan," comprising
35 projects in various fields: communications, transportation, energy,
tourism, agriculture, financial markets and investment, trade, training,
and regional networks.
The round of talks held at Rabat in June 1994 centered around two major
subjects: advancing the implementation of the Copenhagen Action Plan, and
establishing a Monitoring Committee as a tool to formulate a regional
agenda and set priorities for the working group.
The tasks of the Monitoring Committee were defined as follows:
- To monitor the implementation of the Copenhagen Action Plan.
- To organize expert meetings and subcommittees, as required, in the
various fields of regional economic cooperation.
- To identify and promote priority projects to be presented to the
working group.
It was agreed that the Monitoring Committee would strive:
- To encourage the free movement of people, goods, services, capital
and information among the partners in the region.
- To stimulate economic development and to reduce regional economic disparities.
- To promote the region's integration in global markets.
- To fully exploit respective advantages by promoting regional trade,
facilitating investment and developing infrastructure.
The Monitoring Committee represents a qualitative leap in the
institutionalization of the regional dialogue. With the establishment
of this committee, the principle of regional cooperation has been
anchored in specific subcommittees in the different fields of economic
activity.
The working group heard progress on specific projects in the areas of
transportation (highway infrastructure, railways and ports, motor
transportation and civil aviation); energy (linking the electricity
grids of Israel, the autonomous areas, Egypt and Jordan, and the
alternatives of a Mediterranean-Dead Sea or Red Sea-Dead Sea hydroelectric
project); finance (financial markets and stock exchanges, training of
banking personnel in the autonomy); regional trade; and training programs.
Subsequent intersessional activities included:
- The establishment of a regional tourist center in Egypt in September, 1994.
- A business conference held in Marrakech, Morocco in November 1994.
- Meetings of tourist agents held in Cairo, Egypt and Amman, Jordan in October and
December 1994.
Parallel with these developments, the World Bank is considering holding a regional
workshop to study ways to integrate the private sector in infrastructure projects.
The first significant experiment in the use of the internet to promote direct cooperation was linked to the October, 1995 Amman Economic Summit, in which over 60 nations participated. Click here to see the World Wide Web "home page" created by the United States Commerce Department in preparation for this conference. Cooperative ventures are also emerging in the private sector; for example Palnet, as a prime contractor to the Palestinian National Authority, posts economic information relevant to Palestinian and West Bank development and investment.
Chair: EU
May 1992, Brussels
Oct. 1992, Paris
May 1993, Rome
Nov. 1993, Copenhagen
Jun. 1994, Rabat
TBA, Germany
Key Projects
- Planning an Aqaba-Eliat-Sinai highway
- Linking regional electricity grids
- Hydroelectric project study of Dead Sea-Red Sea and Dead Sea-
Mediterranean Sea canals
- Regional veterinary services
- Regional tourist center
Links to related information maintained at IGCC
IGCC's Vouligmeni (Athens) Workshop on Arms Control in the Middle East, held 4-7 November 1994
Al Mashat: The Economics of Security in the Middle East
Amerah: Potential Trade Cooperation Among Jordan, Palestine, and Israel
Mark Heller: Economic Regimes and Regional Stability
Aaron Kleiman: The Future of the Multilateral Talks on Economic Cooperation in the Middle East
Yezid Sayigh: Economics and Security: The Palestinian and Israeli Case
Etel Solingen: Traversing the Valley of Transition: The Multilateral Foundations of Regional Economic Cooperation
Report of the Working Group on Economics and Security
Related Internet Sites
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