According to the World Bank, countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region share many of the same economic woes, reports Sherine Abdel-Razek "One of my hopes is to increase the lending from the World Bank to the region. It stood at $1 billion during the fiscal year ending at the end of this month. For next year I think it will increase by 30-35 per cent," said World Bank vice president of the MENA region, Christiaan Poortman. This came during a six-day visit to Egypt last week where he met a number of senior government officials to start preparations for the World Bank's new "Country Assistance Strategy" which will cover the period from 2005-2007. In a press conference held during the visit, Poortman said the World Bank would grant Egypt loans ranging from $450 million to $500 million in the next three years to finance major infrastructure projects. Expressing confidence in its capacity to meet its financial obligations, Poortman stressed that the bank intends to maintain the same level of support to Egypt as in past years. Poortman maintained a diplomatic tone while discussing local economic problems, saying that the government needs to give the private sector a greater role in the economy while exerting more effort towards attracting foreign direct investment and reforming the financial sector. However, Poortman was very outspoken when it came to talking about the common problems faced by the countries in the region. During the visit, he participated in a roundtable discussion on the MENA development reports on governance, trade, unemployment and gender. The discussions shed light on impediments to economic growth in the region, which is still economically lagging by global standards. According to the reports, world trade has grown by eight per cent per year in the past decade while the region's trade grew by only three per cent. Yet the global economy is still heavily dependent on MENA as a source of oil, other natural resources, labour, manufacturing and provider in other dynamic sectors. Poortman told Al-Ahram Weekly that unemployment also remains one of the most persistent challenges to growth and economic development. "Around five million job opportunities need to be created annually in the region during the coming decade; 600,000 in Egypt alone," said Poortman. The report on unemployment points out that the region's unemployment is estimated at 15 per cent of the workforce. It is concentrated among youth, whose unemployment rate ranges from 37 per cent of total unemployment in Morocco to 73 per cent in Syria with a simple average of 53 per cent for all countries with available data. The limited participation of women in the development process is another important deficiency shared by most of the region's economies. "Women are being increasingly educated in these countries but are not given the opportunity to participate in the labour force. It is not only unfair to not give them the opportunity to practise their training but it is also a losing investment if the country is getting no return on the money it invested in educating those females," said Poortman. Talking to the Weekly about the bank's role in the least fortunate parts of the region, Poortman revealed that it is not yet determined if a chunk of the 35 per cent increase in the World Bank's lending to the region will be directed to war- stricken Iraq. The last World Bank payment to Iraq was approved in 1973. Iraq entered into non- accrual status with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1990 for failure to make loan payments. Iraq's obligation to the bank currently stands at $100 million. According to Poortman the World Bank has been re-involved in Iraq since May last year, when the bank and United Nations Development Group published a joint Iraq "needs assessment" report. The purpose of the assessment was to identify priority reconstruction needs and costs in time for the donor conference held in Madrid last October. "However, because of the security problems after the bombing of the UN headquarters [in Iraq] last August, we are not physically involved there," said Poortman. "We tried very hard to do things from a distance. We set up a special office in Amman to deal with issues in Iraq. We have extensive training programmes with Iraqis. We have day-to-day talks with officials about education, privatisation, public expenditure and poverty alleviation. " Poortman said that a grant for printing text books for the 2004/2005 school year was extended last month and that another for infrastructure projects will be finalised by the end of this month. "I hope we would be able to launch a full World Bank programme for Iraq by the end of June and I think that this new programme will include more lending to the war-stricken country." As for the other conflict-burdened area in the region, the occupied territories, Poortman asserted that there is an agreement that the bank will have a constructive role after Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza. He pointed out that the bank has had an active programme in the West Bank and Gaza for the last 10 years. "Since the Intifada began three years ago and the economic situation deteriorated, an increasing part of the World Bank money has been used for infrastructure projects like the water supply system and electricity. Also, we are increasingly making contributions to the Palestinian budget to help pay the salaries of civil servants," said Poortman. "We are playing a leadership role in mobilising the international community to direct funds to Palestine," he said.
