BEIRUT, Nov 1: Senior financiers called on Arab governments on Wednesday to open up their services market at least to each other and adopt a unified stand at next month’s meeting of the World Trade Organization.

They made their call at the conference of the Union of Arab Banks, in which bleak figures were released about the state of Arab economies and suffocating protectionism in the region.

There are basic measures that must be taken, such as transparency and flexibility in accepting applications to do business, Nasser Saidi, first governor of Banque du Liban, told the annual meeting.

Liberaliztion of communications, financial services, insurance, transport, consulting and marketing would lower costs of Arab goods and raise competitiveness of goods, Saidi added.

Eleven Arab countries are members in the WTO. But the region’s markets remain among the most protected in the world with monopoly enhancing laws dating from Ottoman times.

Unsuccessful efforts have traditionally focused on liberalizing the exchange of goods in the Middle East with little attention to an even more protected services sector.

According to the Arab League, Arab exports in 2000 were worth $273 billion, most of which was oil with a small share for services. The Arab share of total world exports was three per cent, similar to the region’s share of the world’s gross domestic product.

Inter-Arab trade was 10 per cent of total Arab trade and inter-Arab investment amounted to a mere $15 billion for the last 15 years, compared to an estimated $1 trillion of total Arab investments in the West.

I hate to mention these figures because they are so frustrating. But this region is the world’s most successful motivator of capital flight, said Ahmad al-Goueily, secretary general of the Arab Economic Unity Council.

He said last month’s attacks on the United States and the deepening world recession that ensued should force Arab rulers to deregulate to attract Arab capital that faced losses abroad.

But Mutasem Suleiman, a senior economic official in the Arab League, said Arab countries still lacked a high-tech base to lure investment and anaemic economic growth further dampened the outlook.

Arab per capita income has virtually halved since 1980, said Suleiman, adding that the region’s spending on research was equivalent to a mere 0.5 per cent of GDP.—Reuters