Support and Non-Support, and Taking the Path of the Market Economy

Most developed countries, and among them naturally the Arab countries, are complaining about the necessity to decrease the burden of support on the countries budget, in parallel with taking the steps of the economic liberalism and the system of market economy. Yet, these attempts are facing a wide social refusal in countries like Algeria, Egypt, Iran and Syria and even in Kuwait, but what is not being said in this discussion that the support presented by the governments is not a socialist model, rather it is being presented in the capitalist countries as it’s the case in supporting education and health in France, supporting the farmers in the USA, and supporting the technological industry in Israel based on the necessities of the national security, and specially the social and economic security. On the other hand, this financial support must be closely watched and studied in a way that it will not serve only a certain class, rather it sales the interest of the country as a whole, whereas will find that a big percentage of the financial support in the developed countries is still directed towards industries that enjoy monopoly situations or to non producing sectors. It will not be difficult to conclude that the essence of the problem of support lies in the neglected difference between the strategies of vertical development and the horizontal and free economic openness.

Algerian Organizes the Meeting of Human Resources in the Islamic Countries

Algeria is due to organize next Monday a meeting on the reality of the human resources in the economies of the Islamic countries with the participation of experts and economists from the different Islamic countries.

$ 178 m, the Total Cost of Building Glass Factory in Egypt

Chairman of the Egyptian Mansour Wa Al Maghribi Company for Investment and Development said that the company agreed with the French San Jopan Company on building one of the biggest factories for producing flat glass in Egypt with total investments estimated at $178 million.

Abdul Rahman al Attar and his Sons Establish a Syrian Company for Ceramic Industry and Trade

Dr. Abdul Rahman al Attar and his partners have been granted a license from the Syrian Ministry of Economy and Trade for establishing a limited company by the name: “Attar Wa Omari for Producing Ceramic and Granite” with the aim of producing, manufacturing, and selling ceramic and granite.

A Slight Decline of the Indicator of the Iraqi Stock Market

The Indicator of the Iraqi stock market declined in yesterday’s session with 0.502% compared to the previous session closing by 35.620 points. According to a report issued by the stock market, the number of the shares dealt with has reached more than 5.543 billion shares with a total cost that exceeded 7.860 billion dinars achieved through implementing 207 contracts.

A Cooperation Agreement between Kuwait and Turkey

The Kuwaiti Ambassador to Turkey Abdullah Abdul Aziz al Zouaigh said that the visit paid by the Kuwaiti Minister of Trade and Industry Falah al Hajri to Turkey aimed at activating the agreements and projects upon which the Kuwaiti and Turkish Prime Minister s agreed upon mid of this year, pointing out that the signed agreement between the two countries are 14 economic agreements.

Small Indexes

 The Egyptian Central Bank said that the direct foreign investments in Egypt have reached during the first quarter of this fiscal year $3.2 billion opposite to $3.2 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal year.
 Sources in technology sector expected the volume of investments of the GCC countries in the sector of information technology to reach $5 billion in 2007.
 The volume of expenditure in the advertisement field in Bahrain has reached $75 m in nine months.

Companies Indexes

 The Saudi “Safoula” group, the biggest food stuff company in Saudi Arabia, expected to gain profits estimated at 1.2 billion riyals “$322 m” this year with an increase of about 5% compared to the profits of last year.
 The Qatari Trade Bank said that it allocated $800 m for financing buying a share in Al-Arabi Bank located in al Sharaja.
 The average of the growth rate in the Syrian Jordanian company of free zone with regard to trade and industrial investments as well as storage has increased during this year by 33% compared to 2006.

Conferences

 The activities of the 13th annual conference of energy organized by Emirates Center for Studies and Strategic Researchers in Abu Dhabi have been concluded. The conference called upon the GCC countries to get benefit of the resources of the renewable energy like the solar energy, wind energy for generating electricity.
 The value of the exhibited material ion Abu Dhabi International Exhibitions for Jewelries and watches has reached $4 bn.

Indicators is a daily economic watch newsletter about the Near East, issued by New Orient News agency in Beirut, Lebanon. It is available on Voltairenet.org in Arabic and English. Also worth a read is Tendencies, the daily Near East political watch newsletter, available in Arabic, English and French languages.