Outcomes of the second EGAR meeting included, among others, the identification of four main factors hindering economic development of the Arab world: the absence of the unified and legal infrastructure in the region, exacerbated by the lack of rules, standards and methods to deal with trade and economic development; the lack of a common economic structure necessary for regional integration; the mindset that governments and businesses have been guilty; and the lack of regional players willing and capable of acting as transnational companies or organizations.

Concerning the four parameters, there was a general agreement that the drive towards deepening integration was taking place, and that enough momentum was now being generated to move forward. However, this analysis was certainly not shared by all. It was therefore felt that more sustainable efforts towards resolution of these factors were needed.

Involvement and Integration

The Evian Group puts special emphasis on trade and investment and their strategic developments and implications in the regional and global economies. EGAR will take charge of achieving this goal in the Arab world. Therefore the direction that EGAR will undertake depends on how the Arab world can benefit from opportunities taking advantage of technology and information management innovations brought by the twenty-first century. Its goal will be to overcome principal barriers in trade of both services and goods, starting by local solutions, and gradually edging towards regional solutions and ultimately integration into global markets and economy. Special priority will be given to trade in services, which has become more and more significant throughout the Arab world.

Several strategic imperatives can be isolated as paramount to future prospects of the Arab region among which are: the need to deal with the problem of cultural, ideological and economic fragmentation of the region; the need to turn the Arab youth from a potential liability to a dynamic force capable of molding the future of the region and participate in the global economy; the need to deal with the problem of education and R&D, seen as the cause of a "brain-drain” emigration phenomenon..

EGAR will thus endeavor to tackle these issues by becoming a forum elaborating on reform processes of institutional, infrastructural, and regional nature. Particular sectors to be subjected to those reforms are telecommunications, financial markets, inter-regional and international trade and trade agreements.

The first step will be the formation of sub-groups (including business, governmental and opinion leaders) on specific topics such as telecommunications, finance, etc. For six months, these sub-groups will produce a strategy paper that would be presented and discussed at the next EGAR meeting.

Along implementation of reforms, the role of the Youth Initiative will be given more attention: subsequent educational and labor reforms will be proposed to make it easier for young people first to enter labor markets and to obtain well-paid and interesting jobs.

Current and Future Prospects

At the current stage, Youth Initiatives will take place systematically in conjunction with regular EGAR meetings. These initiatives will center around the most important topics discussed on online forums where Arab youth will come up with issues, which are of most concern and play an important role in the development and prosperity of societies.

Some of the issues Arab youth will discuss online include:

• Youth unemployment;
• Current educational system and ways of reforming it
• How to tackle the sense of isolation and insecurity many young Arabs experience
• Ways of active participation in the economic development of the country
• Analysis of the situation of the labor market and ways of facilitating entry and providing more opportunities to the labor market for first-time job seekers and fresh university graduates
• Focus on capacity building and skills development 
• Exploring alternative employment opportunities such as public-private partnerships, entrepreneurial initiatives, vocational programs

Future plans include creating a Youth Entrepreneurship and Professional Skills Center, the outline of which has already been presented to local senior government officials during the EGAR meeting in 2007.

This Center will help provide a more systematic and institutionalized approach to different issues of concern highlighted by EGAR Youth Initiatives. The Center will be responsible for providing training and consultation for young people in business-plan writing, market research analysis and other entrepreneurial undertakings in addition to facilitating access to companies, providing news, and organizing seminars and conferences.

Future Events