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 News Archive |
| Cairo Conference Discusses Economic Freedom of the Arab World |
The 2010 Economic Freedom of the Arab World Report was launched in Cairo at the 5th Economic Freedom of the Arab World Conference entitled "Roadmap to Economic Freedom and Economic reforms".
The three-day-event was organized by the Regional Office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF) in cooperation with the Fraser Institute of Canada and the International Research Foundation (IRF) of Oman and the independent Egyptian business daily Al Mal as official media partner.
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Business leaders, young entrepreneurs, economists, NGO representatives from the Arab world, Europe and North America came together for discussions on the findings of the 2010 report and case studies regarding the state of economic freedom in this part of the world. "Economic freedom is the condition for economic development", said FNF’s Regional Director Dr. Ronald Meinardus in his opening remarks. "The more economically free a country, the more productive and successful", he added.
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"The rankings of almost every country have improved", said Dr. Salem Al Ismailiy, President of the IRF and co-author of the report.
Once more, Bahrain was ranked as most economically free Arab nation followed by Kuwait and Lebanon. Host country Egypt moved up the ladder and is now on rank 9, while Tunisia, Mauritania, Syria and Algeria have the lowest level of economic freedom in the Arab world, according to the report.
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A major impediment for economic freedom is the lack of rule of law, speakers said. Fred Mc Mahon, Vice President Research of the Fraser Institute, termed the rule of law "the infrastructure of economic freedom". Several speakers dealt with the wider political ramifications of economic reform policies in the Arab world and Egypt in particular. "Political reform is essential", said one participant. "No way will economic freedom come, if we do not have political freedom".
While the focus of the conference was economic reform and the bulk of the discussions dealt with macroeconomic data and statistics, conference participants seemed to concur that economics could not – and should not – be separated from politics: "Good economic freedom works only with good political freedom", said Dr. Detmar Doering, the Director of the Liberal Institute of FNF in Potsdam who shared with the participants an overview of economic reforms in Western Europe. Dr. Salem Al Ismaily put the link between economics and politics into perspective: "If you start economic freedom, the other freedoms may follow".
Download the 2010 Economic Report (English and Arabic) at: http://www.scribd.com/fnfcairo |
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