From Political to Economic Awakening in the Arab World : The Path of Economic Integration

Chauffour, Jean-Pierre

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: Arab countries;    Competitiveness;    Deauville Partnership;    Diaspora;    Diversification;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-9669-8
RP-ID  :  74274

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The forces unleashed by the Arabpolitical awakening have the power to be transformational.One critical parameter of success will be whether the Arabpolitical awakening is accompanied by a concurrent economicawakening. Such an economic awakening would need to generatequality employment for the millions of young men and womenwho are looking for jobs and a decent life. In most Arabcountries, it has become evident that the developmentparadigm of the past cannot achieve the qualitative andinclusive growth expected by the population. Economicintegration through increased trade and foreign directinvestment (FDI) is one key means available to policy makersin the short to medium term to put the Partnership countrieson a higher path of sustainable economic growth and in aposition to decisively tackle the problem of unemployment,especially youth unemployment. The comprehensiveness of theproposed integration strategy is also designed to facilitateits political feasibility and acceptance. Although anysingle efficiency-enhancing reform may hurt a particulargroup or individual, once it is part of a broad andcomprehensive reform agenda, the potential negative effectsof reform tend to cancel out each other, making everyone a winner.