The relationship between economic freedom and social justice was the theme of this year’s Economic Freedom of the Arab World Conference held in Marrakech on November 13 to 15, 2009. As in earlier years, this event was co-organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty’s Cairo Office, the Fraser Institute of Canada and the International Research Foundation of Oman. The Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Morocco Centre de Jeunes Dirigents D’Entreprise joined as local partners.

The findings of the 2009 Report on Economic Freedom of the Arab World were the point of reference in most presentations and discussions at this conference. The Report published annually by the Fraser Institute in cooperation with the IRF and FNF was launched in both English and Arabic at the beginning of the two-day conference. The data, once more, substantiates the core liberal message that there exists a correlation between the degree of economic freedom of a country and the level of economic development.

Bahrain first, Egypt tenth

For the first time, enough data was available to include Bahrain in the rankings, which had the best overall score in the 2009 report followed by Kuwait, Lebanon and Oman. Jordan ranks 5^th, Egypt 10^th and Morocco 11^th. According to the data, Algeria, Syria, Mauritania and Tunisia have the weakest levels of economic freedom in the Arab world.

Addressing the conference, Morocco’s Minister of Employment Jamal Aghmani gave an overview of his government’s reform initiatives that took up speed in the last decade. Although the minister was upbeat he conceded that much could still be done to improve the climate for private investment. As in other Arab nations, unemployment is a major challenge in Morocco.

According to World Bank estimates, 40 Million jobs need to be created in the Arab world to find employment for the expanding population. "The greatest single social program in the world is the creation of jobs", said Fred McMahon, Director of Globalization Studies at the Fraser Institute.

The delegates engaged in intensive discussions about social justice: To achieve this, redistribution of wealth is necessary, said Dr. Detmar Doering, head of the Liberal Institute of FNF. He went on to argue that the best way to promote social justice is to increase economic freedom as empirical data proved that personal income levels and life expectancy increase – and the danger of hunger decreases – if the level of economic freedom goes up in a society.

Speakers from various Arab countries pointed out that frequently economic liberalization in this part of the world is flawed as it does not come hand in hand with political reforms and the rule of law: They bemoaned widespread cronyism and a lack of transparency which limit equal opportunities and, also, damage the reputation of economic liberalization in the eyes of many people. "Political and economic liberalization must be two sides of one coin, if societies wish to achieve social progress", said FNF’s Regional Director, Dr. Ronald Meinardus.