By KUNA,
Cairo : Preparations for the Arab Economic Summit, scheduled to be held in early 2009, featured high on the agenda of the Higher Coordination Committee for Joint Arab Action, which held its 39th meeting Sunday.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said a detailed report on 285 projects and proposals had been received by the league secretariat, stressing that specialized Arab labor institutions and organizations were the “technical arm” that supported joint Arab action in all fields.
These organizations, he said, were self-financed and had become “consultant houses” in their respective fields of specialty.
Moussa said, however, these were facing some challenges that hindered their ability to carry out their duties in the best manner and, subsequently, their productivity and efficiency was affected, citing contradictions in their internal regulations as one of the problems.
The committee discussed a report on the meeting recently held in Geneva over Arab League’s cooperation with the UN and its different bodies, as well as the food crisis in the Arab world, the need to support the Palestinian reform and development plan for 2008-2010, and continued efforts for holding the fourth development and investment meeting in Sudan.
The committee had met at the expert level on Thursday and reviewed preparations for the Arab Economic Summit.