Arab world needs USD80bn investment to close food gap

Photo Credit:Reuters/ Ahmed Jadallah

The Arab world needs over $80 billion in agricultural investment to close the widening food gap in the region. 
That is according to HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance, who was speaking at the Annual Meeting of Arab Financial Institutions on Tuesday.

In his keynote address, Sheikh Hamdan stressed that the UAE's initiative to enhance economic stability in the Arab region, which it presented in September 2011 in Abu Dhabi, is considered an important step in the march towards joint Arab economic.

The two-day meeting, held at the Grand Hyatt Dubai, will be attended by the Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors as well as general directors of Arab finance institutions and a number of regional and international observers and delegates.

Sheikh Hamdan also confirmed the importance of regional cooperation and joint Arab action to establish several joint regional projects. He added that Arab communities were facing many challenges in light of the regional economic blocs in the world that require economic and social integration.

In this context, he said that the real growth rate in the Arab region had decreased 4.6 percent in 2010 to 2.4 per cent in 2011, while the foreign debt rates in some Arab countries ranged between 22 percent to 86 percent and the foreign financial flows dropped from $20 billion to become $16 billion.

He also pointed out that food security tops the list of main challenges facing Arab countries, taking into account that Arab agricultural projects did not achieve the targeted increase in productivity to meet the growing demand for food for several reasons, including poor infrastructure, investment environment, financial resources and scientific research in addition to agricultural services which led to widening food gap to reach $41 billion in 2010 and is expected to reach about $89 billion in 2020.