Byline – the Mena region welcomes Italian official plan in bulding the buying power of their neighbors, as the key for global economic recovery

Byline – the Mena region welcomes Italian official plan in bulding the buying power of their neighbors, as the key for global economic recovery.
Chairman of the transportation committee at the Italian parliament Luca Barbareschi said there is an increasing desire for a European trade partnership with the Middle East and North Africa, to be forged under new criteria to build the purchasing power of Europe’s neighbors.
Stressing that next-door countries should be viewed as trade partners rather than just consumer markets for European and Western products, he said: "We need to think globally to promote trade exchange." Italy currently  heads the Group of Eight (G-8).
Barbareschi was officially invited by the Arab League to participate in the Arab Economic, Social and Development Summit, held in Kuwait at the beginning of the year. Barbareschi was part of the Global Coalition for Efficient Logistics delegation (GCEL), which is a Swiss-based non-profit public / private organization.
This tangible global economic program, which was announced by the GCEL delegation, aims to expand global markets through building buying power in the emerging countries. Starting in the Middle East and North Africa, the plan has received support from top officials and media during the Arab Economic summit in Kuwait and subsequently across the entire region.
The Arab League support for the GCEL program was evident through  requesting GCEL's participation in three out of eight economic sessions held at the Kuwait summit. During these sessions, Dr. Mark Drabenstott GCEL executive member and Chairman of the Territorial Development Policy Committee at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said;
the main reason behind the current economic vicious cycle in the industrial countries is that the market is saturated and few are buying. "We must build the buying power of our neighboring emerging countries," he said.  The emerging country candidates to gain from the GCEL program represent 45% of the total world population, while inhabitants in the high-income countries make up only 15%, Drabenstott added.
He said the developed countries will be prepared to focus their incentive economic programs to encourage the relocation of the far distant outsourced light manufacturing to neighboring developing countries. This will undoubtedly build the desired buying power of the neighboring countries and achieving urgently needed trade balance on a regional level, he added, noting that this partnership will help the developing and developed countries to maintain and create more jobs within the highly paid sectors such as the services industry.
He added, therefore, European countries will be able to meet the expectations of their citizens who seek to work in the services sector.
During the Kuwait summit, the press there quoted Co-Chairman of GCEL Samuel Salloum as saying, “now that the developed countries are looking at the MENA region as a real trade partners, the MENA region must reduce the cost of trade to secure this opportunity.”
According to Salloum GCEL’s 18-month global deployment program will provide the tools to reduce the cost of trade from world average 12% to 6% saving $691 billion annually worldwide and $116 billion in the MEA region.
Such savings can be achieved through the global deployment of GCEL's “Soft-Infrastructure” program, which combines technology and training at no cost to the end users, he said.
The next step includes building, on both sides, the required physical infrastructures, such as enterprise zones, ports, rail etc. to serve the regional trade market expansion, Salloum said.
This will allow for creating immediate jobs and ensuring vacancies for construction workers in the port or distribution center after the completion of the construction project, Barbareschi said.
Meanwhile, other regions also deem this initiative as a roadmap out of the present global economic crisis. "The Asia Logistics Council members are avid supporters of this initiative. Officials in Asia and Malaysia are also backing the project that will offer efficient trade to stimulate regional economies that will ultimately sustain global economic growth," said Rafidah Aziz, Malaysia's former commerce and industry minister for 21 years, and chairman of Asia Logistics Council.
Media Reaction
Jordanian press carried coverage for the GCEL initiative focusing on its regional and global impact. The media and press organizations in Jordan reported that GCEL established its regional office in Amman in 2008, based on an official request from the Jordanian government to the World Bank.
The press there warmly welcomed the idea, drawing officials' attentions to this opportunity as a mean to implement King Abdullah's well-known motto "Jordan First".
Meanwhile, the GCEL initiative gained prominent visibility in the Gulf countries. In the UAE's capital Abu Dhabi, the press was interested in attracting the public attentions to the opportunity that such an initiative provides for the country to overcome its current economic challenges.
With a prospect to lead regional efforts and reach an end for the ongoing global economic crisis, the press in UAE quoted Salloum as saying " The launch of the GCEL program in the region will trigger this initiative as the first of four global regions (Americas, Europe, Asia and MEA),"
In the UAE's neighboring country, Qatar coverage of GCEL activities was extensive, trying to attract attention of the top officials there to the major role that GCEL would play in the next era.
Reflecting a positive attitude toward the initiative, the Qatari press explained the objectives of GCEL and the opportunities it offers for the whole region.
Finally, it is about time for some good news, that there is a global plan at our doorstep with the benefits to all gaining regional and global consensus, on both sides of the isle in developed and developing countries starting between MENA and Italy.