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Arab Solutions to International Challenges at WEF in Jordan

WEF Logo at the Dead Sea, Jordan (EPA)
WEF Logo at the Dead Sea, Jordan (EPA)
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Arab Solutions to International Challenges at WEF in Jordan

WEF Logo at the Dead Sea, Jordan (EPA)
WEF Logo at the Dead Sea, Jordan (EPA)

The World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa kicked off in the Dead Sea on Saturday, in the presence of more than 1,000 government, business, and civil society leaders from over 50 countries.

Held under the slogan of “Building New Platforms for Cooperation,” the meeting will discuss economic, technical, financial and social challenges associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II will launch the two-day forum, which will see on its first day addresses by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Mirek Dusek, Deputy Head of Centre for Geopolitical and Regional Affairs and Member of the Executive Committee at the WEF, said the forum would focus on four transformational imperatives: Shaping a new economic and social model for the region; promoting environmental stewardship in the Arab world; finding common ground in a multi-conceptual world; and embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Arab world.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Dusek stressed that one of the Forum’s main concerns was to “enable countries to participate in keeping up with our technological era in a proactive way, enabling positive social, economic and political outcomes.”

“For this reason, over the last few years, the Forum has worked through our Regional Business Council in the Middle East and North Africa with private sector leaders to prepare young people for future jobs. We have received commitments from companies to rehabilitate and modernize the skills of more than one million people,” he noted.

He added that the region had good opportunities to contribute to shaping the future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Dusek underlined the importance of collaboration with Saudi Arabia in this regard. He said the WEF was proud to work with various stakeholders in Saudi Arabia and was currently looking into a number of areas of cooperation, given the overall nature of the reform efforts currently underway in the Kingdom.

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IMF: Middle East Conflict Escalation Could Have Significant Economic Consequences

Displaced families, mainly from Syria, gather at Beirut's central Martyrs' Square, where they spent the night fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes in Beirut, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
Displaced families, mainly from Syria, gather at Beirut's central Martyrs' Square, where they spent the night fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes in Beirut, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
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IMF: Middle East Conflict Escalation Could Have Significant Economic Consequences

Displaced families, mainly from Syria, gather at Beirut's central Martyrs' Square, where they spent the night fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes in Beirut, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
Displaced families, mainly from Syria, gather at Beirut's central Martyrs' Square, where they spent the night fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes in Beirut, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East could have significant economic ramifications for the region and the global economy, but commodity prices remain below the highs of the past year.

IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack told a regular news briefing that the Fund is closely monitoring the situation in southern Lebanon with "grave concern" and offered condolences for the loss of life.

"The potential for further escalation of the conflict heightens risks and uncertainty and could have significant economic ramifications for the region and beyond," Kozack said.

According to Reuters, she said it was too early to predict specific impacts on the global economy, but noted that economies in the region have already suffered greatly, especially in Gaza, where the civilian population "faces dire socioeconomic conditions, a humanitarian crisis and insufficient aid deliveries.

The IMF estimates that Gaza's GDP declined 86% in the first half of 2024, Kozack said, while the West Bank's first-half GDP likely declined 25%, with prospects of a further deterioration.

Israel's GDP contracted by about 20% in the fourth quarter of 2023 after the conflict began, and the country has seen only a partial recovery in the first half of 2024, she added.
The IMF will update its economic projections for all countries and the global economy later in October when the global lender and World Bank hold their fall meetings in Washington.
"In Lebanon, the recent intensification of the conflict is exacerbating the country's already fragile macroeconomic and social situation," Kozack said, referring to Israel's airstrikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"The conflict has inflicted a heavy human toll on the country, and it has damaged physical infrastructure."
The main channels for the conflict to impact the global economy have been through higher commodity prices, including oil and grains, as well as increased shipping costs, as vessels avoid potential missile attacks by Yemen's Houthis on vessels in the Red Sea, Kozack said. But commodity prices are currently lower than their peaks in the past year.
"I just emphasize once again that we're closely monitoring the situation, and this is a situation of great concern and very high uncertainty," she added.
Lebanon in 2022 reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF on a potential loan program, but there has been insufficient progress on required reforms, Kozack said.
"We are prepared to engage with Lebanon on a possible financing program when the situation is appropriate to do so, but it would necessitate that the actions can be taken and decisive policy measures can be taken," Kozack added. "We are currently supporting Lebanon through capacity development assistance and other areas where possible."